DORAL, Fla. – The father of a missing 8-year-old girl was arguing with her mother on the night before she and her daughter disappeared, he told police in documents obtained Wednesday by Local 10 News.
According to various search warrants and a Miami-Dade police probable cause affidavit, Gustavo Castano met with Liliana Moreno, 43, and their daughter, Daniela Moreno, at her Doral apartment May 30. Castano told police that he asked Moreno and Daniela to come with them to the Home Depot, and he got into an argument with Moreno while he was driving.
File: Search warrants and police affidavits in search for Liliana and Daniela Moreno
Castano said he pulled over and dropped them off near Florida's Turnpike and Okeechobee Road, where Moreno scratched him on his arm. Castano said he drove to his warehouse in Medley, where he stayed for a short time, before returning to the area where he dropped them off, but they weren't there, so he drove home.
Moreno and her daughter were reported missing the next day.
Police said cellphone records revealed that Castano had been at his business in Medley like he said. But they also learned that Discount Prints, the business next to Castano's warehouse, had been burglarized.
The owner of the business told police that the surveillance system was the only thing that had been stolen during the burglary. Police said a cellphone tower placed Castano's phone in close proximity to the warehouse at the time of the burglary.
Detectives searched a dumpster near the warehouse and found paperwork pertaining to Moreno inside.
A few days later on June 2, family members told detectives that Castano had contacted them, saying that he "loved them and to take care of themselves," the documents said.
Family members said Castano also told them that he had given $5,000 in cash and a new Sears credit card to his ex-wife.
Later that night, police found Castano sitting in a Home Depot pickup truck threatening to harm himself with a box cutter. Police were able to intervene, but not before Castano stabbed himself.
Castano was taken to Kendall Regional Medical Center in critical but stable condition.
Although he is listed as a suspect in the paperwork, Castano has not been arrested or charged in connection with the mother and daughter's disappearance.