Nearly a decade after Liliana Moreno and her 8-year-old daughter Daniella disappeared in the Miami area, federal investigators say they have arrested one 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 disappearance of Liliana and Daniella, according to court documents.

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 only one charge against him – the accusing him of kidnapping Liliana, then 42 years old – he alleges that the kidnapping led to the deaths of Liliana and the child. Authorities have released very few details, including why investigators believe they died, how the kidnapping happened, what led them to arrest Castano and whether they know of a motive.

The indictment’s assertion that Liliana and Daniella are dead “is not what we want to see,” Liliana’s brother, Eduardo Moreno, told CNN this week.

“As a family, we’re trying to find out what happened,” he told CNN by phone.

The mother and daughter, who lived in Doral, just northwest of Miami, were last seen in or near a Home Depot in nearby Hialeah on May 30, 2016, according to the FBI.

Castano is Daniella’s father, although he “was never involved in Daniella’s life,” Eduardo Moreno told CNN.

Liliana and Castano also knew each other throughout their careers, her brother said. Liliana was an architect, Castano was in construction and they had often worked together, the Miami Herald reported.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida announced the charge Tuesday. Castano remained in custody following a hearing before a federal magistrate judge that day, the office said.

Court documents and the office’s press release do not specify whether investigators found Liliana or Daniella dead. The indictment alleges that Castano kidnapped Liliana, held her “for reward and otherwise” and used “a cell phone, the Internet, a motor vehicle and the Homestead Extension of Florida’s Turnpike” to commit the crime .

“It is further alleged that the commission of the aforementioned kidnapping resulted in” the deaths of Liliana and Daniella Moreno, the indictment states, without elaborating.

The FBI – one of the agencies investigating the case, according to prosecutors – cannot discuss ongoing investigations like this, said spokesman Jim Marshall, who cited the court documents and the statement. press release from the US Attorney 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 to ask questions about the case but did not immediately receive a response.

An attorney for Castano, Phil Reizenstein, told CNN on Friday that he had just been retained in the case and needed time to investigate, prepare and develop a bond proposal. His office plans to request that a pretrial detention hearing be held Wednesday, he said.

If convicted, Castano faces a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison, the release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The maximum penalty would be death, the office said.

The disappearance

Eduardo spoke to his sister by phone less than an hour before she left his house on May 30, 2016, he told CNN. He did not explain why she left the house, but added that Liliana intended to stay home 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) on her birthday,” Eduardo said. But Liliana and Daniella didn’t call Carolina that Monday.

That’s when his 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 call, Castano was hesitant about whether he last saw Liliana on May 30 or a few days before, Eduardo said.

Increasingly concerned about his sister’s whereabouts, Eduardo asked a friend of Liliana’s living in Doral to check on his sister’s home to see if she was there, he said.

“We assumed Liliana’s car wasn’t at her house, because Gustavo told us he looked for Liliana’s car and she wasn’t there,” Eduardo said. But Liliana’s friend said her car was parked in the same place it was usually parked and no one was home.

Eduardo then decided to involve the police.

At Liliana’s home, police saw her car in the driveway and food on a stove, and they also found her wallet, CNN affiliate WPLG reported.

The FBI missing persons poster for the mother and 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 the Florida Turnpike 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 Daniella?

“In this case, it’s more about finding out what happened or at least trying to bring them back,” he said.

CNN’s Amanda Musa contributed to this report.

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