Huge update in mysterious 2016 disappearance of Florida mother and her daughter, 8

A Florida man has been indicted for the alleged kidnapping of his ex-girlfriend and their then-8-year-old daughter resulting in their deaths after the pair mysteriously disappeared in 2016.

Gustavo Castaño Restrepo, 55, appeared before a federal judge on Tuesday after an indictment charged him with two counts of kidnapping resulting in death of Liliana Moreno, 43, and the once-couple's young daughter Daniella Moreno.

'It has been eight years and we haven’t heard anything from them, so it was really, really shocking and unbelievable,' Lilana’s brother, Eduardo Moreno, told Local 10 News. 

Restrepo also kept his alleged crime a secret from his now-wife for the last eight years.

According to the unsealed indictment, on May 30, 2016, Restrepo willfully and unlawfully kidnapped his child's mother, an act that allegedly resulted in the deaths of Liliana and their daughter, a spokesperson for the FBI told the DailyMail.com.

Following the hearing in Miami, Restrepo is currently detained, and a pre-trial detention hearing in Miami Magistrate Court is scheduled for Friday.

If convicted of the charged offense, the mandatory minimum sentence is life in prison and the maximum penalty is death.  

Miami-Dade police first learned of the mother-daughter disappearance after they received a call on May 31, 2016 from Liliana's sister in Colombia, who was worried after she had not heard from the mother in several days.

Investigators then found out Daniella had not been in school the previous Friday. They also discovered that the front door of Liliana's apartment was locked, her purse and wallet inside and her car sitting in the parking lot.

Police and state wildlife officers reportedly searched for weeks around a nearby forest and wooded area, the canal behind the Home Depot where the pair was last seen and a warehouse owned by Restrepo - but no clues surfaced.

Restrepo was the last to have seen Liliana and Daniella as Michael Grieco, Restrepo's lawyer at the time of their vanishing, said his then-client had lunch with Liliana and their daughter before he dropped them off by the Home Depot.

Police immediately suspected foul play after they received the concerned call and have since had Restrepo pinned atop their suspect list.

Restrepo returned to the exact spot of the alleged abduction just weeks after.

During the altercation, he was shot with a Taser gun after he stabbed himself in the neck in front of police when they discovered him inside his truck in the parking lot of the Hialeah Gardens Home Depot.

He would later lose his eye as a result of the tasing.

The case had gone cold until last year when the FBI indicated that several clues pointed to foul play in the disappearance of Liliana and Daniella. 

The FBI revealed that the family has connections to Colombia suggesting that someone there may have had vital information regarding the case.

At the time, the clues had remained sealed to best protect the integrity of the investigation.

Each year, the Moreno family holds a vigil outside Restrepo's home with hopes to cure their unresolved anguish.  

'We need to know what happened with them. We need to close this story,' Eduardo said at the time. Now, he may finally have that closure.