Where's Viri? Woman's disappearance remains cold as custody battle, suspicions heat up

The family stays composed until conversation turns to Viridiana Maldonado, their beloved daughter and sister, who has been missing for a year.

Then tears flow. They describe Viridiana, a young woman with dark, wavy hair and deep-brown eyes who left two children behind.

Her mother and sister care for her 7-year-old-son, Alex —her spitting image, they say— who continually asks about his mother, "Viri." Meanwhile, they're fighting Viridiana's estranged husband in court for custody of her 3-year-old son, now living with his father in another country.

Is she alive? Is she dead? What should they tell the children?

"We're not complete because my sister isn't here," said Jenne Cuevas, Viridiana's older sister, in Spanish. "I sleep, but it isn't easy because I'm always thinking of her."

A year ago today, it became apparent that the 21-year-old was not coming home from a night on the town. Since then, the family's fears about foul play have grown. Now police are convinced, too. Though no arrests have been made, investigators last week identified a suspect publicly for the first time: her husband, Jorge Maldonado.

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.