(WSVN) - The search for a baby who went missing after his mother, grandmother and great-grandmother were found dead has turned into a cold case.
On Jan. 28, 2020, an AMBER alert was issued for Andrew Caballeiro, who was 1-week-old at the time, but he has still not yet been found.
“We were always motivated on our missions, but this one especially,” said Matt Melican, a volunteer with Marco Patriots.
The search for Andrew last year made headlines nationwide. Police said Ernesto Caballeiro, his father, killed the child’s mother, grandmother and great grandmother before he took off with the 1-week-old.
Detectives traced Caballeiro to a wooded area in Pasco County, where they found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. However, the baby was nowhere to be found.
Soon after, a search began that included a stretch of State Road 29 in Big Cypress Preserve.
“It was an emotional experience for all of us,” Melican said. “We were very eager to do whatever we could to find this little guy.”
For weeks, the FBI, Miami-Dade Police, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office and numerous other law enforcement agencies and volunteers searched through dense woods and swampy waters. Melican was one of those volunteers.
“We were optimistic that we were going to produce something,” he said.
One year later, the disappearance of Andrew Caballeiro is a cold case.
Fernando Alvarez is a private investigator hired by the child’s surviving family, and one year later, they’ve accepted the grim reality the child will never be found.
“We want to give closure to this case to find baby Andrew, so he can be buried along with his mother, but it’s not happening,” Alvarez said.
Andrew’s family is focused on raising his sister, who was not with the family on the day they were murdered.
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