At a funeral for Carlos Aguilar’s son, a man helped him do something positive with his loss.
That man was Armando Perez, founder of Missing Children Global Network. Perez passed away in 2015, but his foundation lent Aguilar a helping hand this month.
Christian Aguilar, a UF student, was reported missing Sept. 20, 2012, in Gainesville. He was murdered Oct. 12, 2012, in Levy County.
That same year, Aguilar founded the Christian Aguilar Search and Rescue Foundation, which trains dogs to search for missing people.
“Our lives are completely different since he (Christian) went missing, and we still aren’t recovered… and if I can give back to the community like the community gave to me during the worst days of my life, I will do it,” Aguilar said.
However, recent financial troubles almost brought the operation to a halt.
Aguilar posted to Facebook on Jan. 6 to announce that sponsors were scarce and he could no longer run the organization.
He also announced a partnership with Perez’s foundation, in which the Christian Aguilar Search and Rescue Foundation became a division of the MCGN.
With the partnership, Aguilar hopes to provide the public with rescue dogs certified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
He said between training for himself and the dogs, along with the costs of transportation, the bill would amount to about $23,000.
“I didn’t know what I was going to get into when I decided to open this foundation,” Aguilar said. “I didn’t know anything about dogs, or how to handle them. These animals give you so much love, so much support emotionally, and they become a part of the family.”
Fernando Alvarez, a private investigator, volunteers at MCGN, and he said the addition of Aguilar’s division will make the process of finding missing children faster – at no cost to families.
“We do not care if the family is rich or poor, because a child is a child,” he said.
When Aguilar’s son went missing, volunteers and professionals searched alongside trained dogs to find Christian.
Hunters eventually found Christian inside the Gulf Hammock Hunting Club. Looking back, Aguilar realized the dogs used to search for his son only specialized in finding drugs and providing protection, not recovering missing people.
Gainesville Police currently has nine dogs that are trained for several purposes, such as finding drugs. The dogs are able to search for missing people, but it’s not their sole purpose, GPD spokesman Officer Ben Tobias said.
The same goes for the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, spokesman Art Forgey said.
In the future, MCGN, with the help of dogs trained through the Christian Aguilar Search and Rescue Foundation, hopes to search the remote areas of Florida and recover the remains of missing persons, according to Alvarez.
“I keep my son in my heart, and he will never go away,” Aguilar said. “He will never be forgotten and hopefully the people helping me will never give up saving people in the name of Christian.”
