By james art 
Nearly a decade after Liliana Moreno and her 8-year-old daughter, Daniela, disappeared in the Miami area, federal investigators say they’ve arrested a man in the case: the girl’s father.
Gustavo Alfonso Castano Restrepo, 55, of Miami, was arrested Monday, days after he was indicted in federal court on one count of kidnapping resulting in death in connection with the 2016 disappearances of Liliana and Daniela, court documents show.
But much of the case remains shrouded in mystery to the public and Liliana’s family: Although the two-page indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Miami makes one count against him — accusing him of abducting Liliana, then 42 — it claimed that the abduction resulted in the death of both Liliana and the child. Authorities have released very few details, including why investigators believe they are dead, how the kidnapping happened, what led them to arrest Castano and whether they know of a motive.
The claim in the indictment that Liliana and Daniela are dead “is not what we want to see,” Liliana’s brother Eduardo Moreno told CNN this week.
“We as a family … are trying to figure out what happened,” he told CNN by phone.
The mother and daughter, who lived in Doral, northwest of Miami, were last seen at or near a Home Depot in nearby Hialeah on May 30, 2016, according to the FBI.
Castano is Daniela’s father, although he was “never involved in Daniela’s life,” Eduardo Moreno told CNN.
Liliana and Castano also knew each other through their careers, her brother said. Liliana was an architect, Castano was in construction, and they often worked together, the Miami Herald reports.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida announced the indictment on Tuesday. Castano remained in custody after a hearing before a federal magistrate that day, the office said.
Court documents and the office’s press release did not say whether investigators found Liliana or Daniela dead. The indictment alleges that Castano kidnapped Liliana, held her “for reward or otherwise” and used “a cell phone, the Internet, a motor vehicle and the Homestead Extension of the Florida Turnpike” in the commission of the crime.
“It is further alleged that the commission of the aforesaid kidnapping resulted” in the deaths of both Liliana and Daniela Moreno, the indictment said, without elaborating.
The FBI — one of the agencies investigating the case, according to prosecutors — cannot discuss ongoing investigations like this one, said spokesman Jim Marshall, who cited court documents and the U.S. attorney’s release as available information. The Miami-Dade Police Department, another agency involved in the case, did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
CNN reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office with questions about the case, but did not immediately hear back.
Castano’s attorney, Phil Reisenstein, told CNN on Friday that he had just been arrested in the case and needed time to research, prepare and put together a bail offer. His office intends to request a “custodial remand” hearing on Wednesday, he said.
If convicted, Castano faces a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement. The maximum sentence will be death, the office said.
Liliana and Daniela Moreno are seen in this undated photo. Gustavo Alfonso Castano Restrepo was arrested days after being indicted on one count of kidnapping resulting in death.
Courtesy of Eduardo Moreno via CNN Newsource
The disappearance
Eduardo spoke to his sister on the phone less than an hour before she left home on May 30, 2016, he told CNN. He did not say why she left the house, but added that Liliana’s intention was to stay home for most of the day.
That day was also the birthday of their sister Carolina, who lives in Colombia with much of the rest of the Morenos’ family, he said.
“They always called her (Carolina) for her birthday,” Eduardo said. But Liliana and Daniela didn’t call Carolina that Monday.
Then her family started to worry.
Eduardo, who was in Colombia at the time, said the family received a call from Castano on the morning of May 31 asking if they had heard from Liliana. During the conversation, Castano hesitated whether he had last seen Liliana on May 30 or days before, Eduardo said.
Growing concerned about his sister’s whereabouts, Eduardo asked a friend of Liliana’s who lives in Doral to check on his sister’s home to see if she was there, he said.
“We assumed Liliana’s car was not at her home because Gustavo told us he looked for Liliana’s car and it wasn’t there,” Eduardo said. But Liliana’s friend said that her car was parked in the same place they usually park, and that no one was home.
Eduardo then decides to get the police involved.
At Liliana’s home, police found her car in the driveway and food on the stove, and also found her wallet, CNN affiliate WPLG reported.
The FBI’s missing persons poster for the mother and her child states that they were “last seen at or near the Home Depot located at 13895 Okeechobee Road in Hialeah, Florida.” According to WPLG, Castano told police that Liliana requested that she and her daughter be dropped off on Florida Highway at Okeechobee Road, an intersection very close to Home Depot.
“We want to know what happened,” Eduardo Moreno told CNN. “If something happened to my sister Liliana, where is Daniela?
“In this case, it’s more about finding out what happened or at least trying to get them back,” he said.
CNN’s Amanda Moussa contributed to this report.
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