The father of missing University of Florida freshman Christian Aguilar said he's not giving up looking for his son and is asking the FBI to provide more help in the search.
"I want the FBI to start joining the investigation, I want the FBI to come over here and provide resources for the search," Carlos Aguilar told NBC 6 in a phone interview Sunday. Police have previously said the FBI was assisting in the effort.
Although Christian Aguilar's body hasn't been found, Gainesville Police in Friday announced they were charging his friend and former classmate, Pedro Bravo, with murder in the disappearance.
The 18-year-old Aguilar was last seen with Bravo on Sept. 20. Police initially charged Bravo, also 18, with depriving a crime victim of medical care, but the murder charge was added after police say they found blood in Bravo's SUV and found Aguilar's backpack hidden inside a suitcase in Bravo's closet.
Blood Found in Pedro Bravo's SUV: Police
The blood found in the vehicle is being compared with DNA samples from Aguilar, police said.
Last Wednesday, Gainesville Police said Bravo bought a shovel and roll of duct tape "several days" before the disappearance.
Police said Bravo changed his story after being confronted with evidence but hasn't been cooperative with detectives. He's being held without bond and his attorney said Saturday that the case was far from over.
“We’ve told you this before. Since the day the police first questioned him, they had him for somewhere between 8 to 12 hours," attorney Ron Kozlowski said. "They talked to him, they interrogated him, he drove them around town, he showed them what he said he knew."
Family, friends and several law enforcement agencies have spent the past 10 days looking for the Doral Academy Preparatory High School grad, and his father said the search would continue Monday.
Group From Doral Joins Search for Missing UF Teen
"We need closure for my family, you know, so we can take my son home. Then I can spend some time with my family, grieving, you know, without searching," he said. "We haven't had that opportunity, you know, we cry, we've been crying everytime that a group goes and they come back and we don't see coming with anything. It's a suffering and suffering and we cry and cry again, that's something that is killing us little by little.
"We need to find Christian's body, just send the FBI and see if they can find that closure for us."
Meanwhile, the Music Saves Lives club at Florida International University announced they will be holding a benefit concert to raise money to find Aguilar. The benefit will be held Oct. 14 in the concert hall at the School of Music. For more info go to http://helpfindchrisconcert.webs.com/.
