Katie 
Daviess County, Kentucky: What started as a possible missing person case has become a death investigation after human remains were recovered form a storage unit landing two adults behind bars.
The Daviess County Sheriff's Office issued a news release on Tuesday, October 4, concerning the arrests of Jose Gomez-Alvarez, 31, and Cheyanne Porter, 27, on charges of tampering with physical evidence and abuse of a corpse.
The investigation remains ongoing.
According to the release, on the evening of Friday, September 30, the department received a call concerning a possible missing person case. The initial report was from an individual who "had garnered knowledge and was concerned that a juvenile female was missing from a known family."
The initial complaint stated that Gomez-Alvarez and Porter cared for several children, but one female in particular hadn't been with them for some time and there always seemed to be an excuse.
The child had not been seen since November 2021.
Investigators learned that Gomez-Alvarez and Porter had spent much of 2022 living a transient lifestyle in various states, staying in various hotels. As a result, the department took to social media in order to appeal to the public for help in locating the family.
The release goes on to say that on Monday, information was received which led them to a storage facility that had been rented in the name of Cheyanne Porter in Owensboro, Kentucky. A search warrant for the unit was obtained and inside, officers discovered a tote containing the suspected remains of 9-year-old Alianna Maya Gomez-Alvarez wrapped in a blanket.
The remains were transported to the Medical Examiner's Office in Madisonville, Kentucky for autopsy and positive identification.
Citing the arrest complaint, WFIE indicates that Alianna's siblings told investigators that she had died in their home in Evansville, Indiana. Investigators now believe that she died from convulsions after being locked in the basement for an extended period of time.
According to Law and Crime, when asked about his daughter's death, Gomez-Alvarez allegedly stated that he hadn't told authorities because he was afraid he would "get in trouble."
An arraignment was scheduled for Wednesday morning.
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