Vehicle searched, man questioned but no arrest in Miami teen jogger’s hit-and-run death
Three days after police interviewed a suspect and found the car they believe was involved in the hit-and-run death of a teenage jogger in Miami, no arrest has been made and some familiar with the case said it could be a while.
The hold up: DNA test results and the continued search for any video that might link a Belle Meade man interviewed by police to the gray vehicle suspected of killing 16-year-old Dayana “Diani” Gomez.
Miami police refused to publicly comment on the case Friday, saying there was no update.
But a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said it could be days, even weeks, before police have enough evidence to make an arrest.
“We still have to build the case to ID [identify] who was driving the car,” the source said. “There is not enough evidence to arrest him yet.”
Dayana’s death was yet another blow to a family who fairly recently had been separated from another loved one. The teen’s father was detained in 2017 and deported to his native Honduras. The family is hoping to secure a humanitarian visa for him to return to Miami to mourn his daughter’s death.
“He’s very distressed knowing he can’t come,” said Dayana’s aunt, Concepcion Alvarado.
Dayana, dressed in jogging clothes, left the family’s Upper East Side Miami home early Saturday morning, as she does most weekends, for a run. When she didn’t return by early evening, worried family members called police. The next morning, police received a call from someone saying someone might have been hit by a gray car on the 79th Street Causeway.
Family members desperate to find her went on Facebook Live begging the public for help. They set up a GoFundMe page that as of Friday had collected more than $10,000.
Police didn’t find the missing girl’s body. But late Sunday afternoon one of Dayana’s uncles did, her possessions and some clothing scattered around her lifeless body on the north side of the cause near some shrubbery not far from Pelican Harbor Marina.
From there, the search was on for clues to the young girl’s death. At first, Miami police insinuated her death involved some type of “foul play.” But police later cleared that up and said Dayana appeared to be the victim of a traffic homicide.
Then on Tuesday, helicopters hovered overhead little Belle Meade Island as police surrounded a gray vehicle with what they said was damage in line with could be expected from hitting Dayana. Police also detained and interviewed a man for several hours who law enforcement sources said was tied to the vehicle.
But without conclusive video linking him to the time of the incident and still awaiting DNA results from the vehicle’s exterior that could tie the car to Dayana, police had no choice but to let the man go.
Dayana was born and raised in Miami, one of three siblings. She hoped to be a banker or work in real estate, Alvarado said.
Family members have set up a viewing for Dayana on Friday night. She will be buried Saturday.
Relatives say they are waiting anxiously for the results of the police investigation. Alvarado, who was on hand when relatives found the body, said the driver should have stopped to help.
“Maybe she could have been saved,” she said.
