The reward for the safe return of missing 12-year-old Maria Gomez-Perez has increased to $50,000 as the inquiry enters its third week. According to a Facebook post by the Hall County Sheriff’s Office, all the reward money has come from anonymous business and community members.
Maria Gomez-Perez Missing Case:
Another mother, who has recently participated in multiple searches for Gomez-Perez, said she intends to continue looking until the small girl is located. A 12-year-old girl was last seen in front of her home in Hall County on May 29; now, family, friends, and community members, as well as local and federal law officials, are searching for her. On Saturday, a local woman led the hunt for Maria Gomez-Perez after her daughter had been missing for several months. “She is 26 now, but she was taken from me when she was nine months old,” Melody Gaddy stated. “She was taken to Mexico.”
Another mother, who has recently participated in multiple searches for Gomez-Perez, said she intends to continue looking until the small girl is located. “When I heard about the case, I got scared and went looking for her right away,” Melissa Chanersky said. “All the searches we’ve been to, we must have handed out thousands of flyers.”
What do the Officials Say?
Along with the Hall County Sheriff’s Office, Couch stated that over 70 investigators from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Homeland Security, and the Guatemala embassy are working around the clock to locate Gomez-Perez. “It’s scary not knowing where your child is. Are they safe? Are they getting fed? Are they getting molested? “It’s scary,” Gaddy said.
So far, authorities say they’ve received roughly 70 tips in Gomez Perez’s case and conducted drone and K-9 searches at his residence. Chanersky is teaching her children how to protect themselves from those who would harm them. “We teach them about bad guys and how they can come at any time, anywhere, and that we should always be prepared that if somebody snatches them what to do,” Chanersky told me. Anyone with information about Gomez-Perez’s disappearance can contact the HCSO Special Investigations Unit at 770-503-3232 or [email protected]. Tips can also be left with 911 or Hall County Dispatch at 770-536-8812.