In a public statement released Friday, Dominican Republic’s National Police has formally refuted a widely shared social media post that falsely claimed 18 children went missing in the country between 2024 and 2026, confirming no official missing person reports match the cases cited in the viral content. Police spokesperson Colonel Diego Pesqueira explained that specialized cyber-patrol units and criminal investigators launched an immediate verification process following the spread of the unsubstantiated claim. The post listed 18 children between the ages of 0 and 11 as missing, but cross-checks against national official missing person records and existing media reporting found no matches to any registered case of a missing minor in Dominican territory. Preliminary investigative tracing has linked the origin of the false publication to New Jersey, United States, and Dominican law enforcement continues working to identify the individuals who created and distributed the misleading content. While discrediting the viral hoax, police also confirmed two active, legitimate missing minor cases from the 2024–2026 timeframe: Roldani Nicolás Calderón and Brianna Genao Rosario, both reported missing in 2025. Investigations and search operations for both children remain ongoing, with active monitoring by authorities. Additional genuine past missing minor cases from prior years were also acknowledged by the agency, including Fraynel Daniel Ciprián Montero and Ruth Esther Paredes Ramírez, who went missing in 2023, and Luis Ángel González Méndez and Kendry Esmil, reported missing in 2022. Pesqueira issued a public appeal to Dominican residents, media outlets and social media users to fact-check all claims related to missing persons before sharing them online, stressing that unfounded viral reports create widespread, unnecessary public anxiety that diverts resources away from active search efforts for real missing people. The spokesperson added that law enforcement will not abandon efforts to hold those responsible for the hoax accountable, even as investigators prioritize work on open missing person cases. He also clarified national police missing person data protocols, noting that cases involving teenagers and adult missing persons are tracked separately from minor child cases under different statistical classification systems.
Police denies viral list claiming 18 children are missing in Dominican Republic
