A person of interest in the February disappearance of Maria Diaz, 29, is in custody, according to officers with the Douglas Police Department.
Guillermo Delacruz-Morales, 42, is being held in the Coffee County Jail on firearms charges. He was arrested on March 23, 2023. Investigators believe that Delacruz-Morales had been in an intimate relationship with Diaz for over a year.
Almost a week after Delacruz-Morales’s arrest, officers from the police department and other agencies searched an area on East Ethel Street known as The Compound. Investigators searched The Compound extensively but did not find anything related to Diaz’s disappearance.
On Friday, April 21, 2023, investigators from the Douglas Police Department, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and Coffee County EMA searched the Seventeen Mile River near the bridge on Highway 221 as well as the surrounding woods. As with The Compound, the search yielded little information.
Diaz’s last known location was The Compound. Investigators believe that Diaz was attempting to leave The Compound at the time of her disappearance. They also believe that her disappearance was not of her own free will and she is seriously endangered.
The Douglas Police Department is asking anyone that had contact with Maria Diaz around the time of her disappearance or that has any information on The Compound or the individuals that frequent the location to please contact the Douglas Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division at 912-384-2222, the Tips Line at 912-260-3600, or Investigator Brittany O’Steen at bosteen@cityofdouglas.com.