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Girl, 12, her male babysitter missing

Police search for the illegal immigrant child who may have been taken by a 25-year-old man on Monday.

BRADENTON - Police issued an Amber Alert on Tuesday for a 12-year-old girl who they fear was abducted by a 25-year-old co-worker of her brothers.

Margarita Aguilar-Lopez was last seen Monday night at a Bradenton motel, where she was staying with two grown brothers who had left her in the care of Antonio Paulino-Perez.

When the brothers returned to their room at the Classic Inn at about 8 p.m., the child and Paulino-Perez were missing, they said.

The brothers did not report their sister missing until Tuesday morning, even though a Bradenton police officer spoke to them at the motel at about 10 p.m. Monday while investigating a battery complaint against one brother, Rubino Aguilar.

Asked about the delay, one brother told police he and his brother were "too intoxicated and could not remember."

Police did not disclose the second brother's identity or their ages.

Margarita is a Mexican citizen, 4 foot 10 and 65 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a white T-shirt and blue pants.

She is an illegal immigrant who had been living with her brothers and her sister-in-law at the motel, babysitting a brother's children while the family's adults worked at migrant labor in Ruskin, said Maj. William Tokajer, a Bradenton police spokesman.

Paulino-Perez is 5 feet 2 and 120 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. He may be driving a red Ford Aerostar van, police said.

[Last modified April 27, 2005, 00:47:14]