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A 2-year-old girl who was taken by her father after her mother was shot to death has been returned to Cumberland County, authorities said Wednesday.

Juliana Laticia Reyes, who was found early Tuesday outside a shopping center in Newport News, Va., is with her grandparents, according to a Cumberland County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman.

Authorities are not releasing the name of the grandparents, who live in Hope Mills, but they are the parents of 22-year-old Marianna Latisha Reyes, who was shot Monday night, spokeswoman Debbie Tanna said.

Authorities are still searching for Alexander Zelaya, 33, who is Juliana's father, Tanna said.

A warrant has been issued charging him with first-degree murder in the death of Reyes, authorities said.

Zelaya is accused of shooting Reyes, who was found outside a house on the 2200 block of Waco Drive in Fayetteville, Tanna said.

Deputies found Reyes about midnight after a neighbor reported hearing gunshots, authorities said.

Investigators believe Zelaya, an El Salvador national, left in a burgundy, four-door 1994 Subaru Legacy that he took from a neighbor at gunpoint, Tanna said. The North Carolina license plate is ZYT-3784.

A delivery truck driver in Newport News found the couple's daughter outside a closed business, authorities said. The child was wearing a T-shirt and a soiled diaper. The truck driver took the girl to a Food Lion grocery store and called police, authorities said.

Reyes, who was from Honduras, had been working off and on for about six months at the Mi Casita restaurant on Camden Road in Hope Mills, according to restaurant manager Gabriel Macias.

Over the last few months, she had been working the early shift.

"I didn't know much about her," he said Wednesday. "She was a very quiet girl. As far as I know, a very nice girl. Very respectful."

Macias said he didn't know anything about Zelaya or Zelaya's relationship with Reyes. On occasion, Reyes' daughter came to the restaurant.

"A beautiful little girl," Macias said.

He learned of her death, he said, in a phone call from an assistant.

"I couldn't believe it," he said. "We were expecting her to come in at 11 o'clock in the morning. It came as a shock."