Miya Marcano.Photo: Orange County Sheriff’s Office
The search for missing Florida teenagerMiya Marcanoended with tragic news Saturday morning when police found what they believe to be the 19-year-old’s body.
Marcano’s purported remains were discovered around 10:45 a.m. in the area of the Tymber Skan on the Lake Condominiums, Orange County Sheriff John Mina said during apress conference. Although Mina said they were “very certain of the identity,” the official identification and cause of death is pending with the medical examiner’s office.
The Orange County Medical Examiner’s Office did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for confirmation.
“As a community, as a sheriff, as a father, we are grieving the loss of Miya,” Mina said. “Again, we can’t imagine the pain and anguish that Miya’s parents, the family the loved ones, the friends and really our entire community have gone through and will continue to go through. On behalf of the men and women of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, we offer our deepest condolences to Miya’s parents, her family and her loved ones.”
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Armando Manuel Caballero.
Marcano, a sophomore at Valencia College, was last seen at around 5 p.m. on Friday at the Arden Villas Apartments in Orlando, where she lived and worked in the leasing office. Caballero, 27, had worked in maintenance at the complex since June.
Mina said that Caballero expressed a romantic interest in Marcano, but he was repeatedly rebuffed. “I think that it is a situation where someone had developed a romantic interest,” he said. “Obviously Miya wasn’t interested. We are still trying to investigate all the circumstances behind this and what exactly happened regarding her disappearance.”
“We now know that a maintenance-issued master key FOB, which Caballero was known to be in possession of, was used to enter Miya’s apartment on Friday afternoon at about 4:30 p.m.,” Mina said. “This would have been about 30 minutes before she finished her shift at the apartment complex.”
Investigators issued an arrest warrant for Caballero and were searching for him over the weekend before they found him dead at his apartment in Seminole County on Monday.
Marcano’s family said that she was supposed to fly to Fort Lauderdale on Friday night, but she missed her flight. “Obviously her family raised this level of alarm and concern knowing Miya would never not be in contact with them, would never turn off her phone and never let her phone battery drain completely down,” Mina said.
Her cousin said theyfound signs of struggle in Marcano’s apartment, noting that her room was found in “disarray” with jewelry on the floor and the bed unmade. They also said that blood was found in the area.
Miya’s father Marlon Marcano told PEOPLE on Friday that he “strongly believes” he will find his daughter. “The word out there is just to find Miya,” he said. “We are searching. She is a very fun-loving, energetic person who loves everybody.”
source: people.com
