BIG COPPITT KEY, Fla. – Witnesses said they had seen Roy Blanco, Blanco's mother and his Siberian husky walking around Big Coppitt Key in the days after his ex-girlfriend's disappearance.
On the same day Miami police found Tanya Gonzalez's car with a body inside, Roy Blanco, a person of interest in her disappearance, fatally stabbed himself, according to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office. Blanco's mother also attempted suicide, authorities said.
The pair apparently rented a boat using false information.
A U.S. Coast Guard report shows the boat ran out of fuel near Big Coppitt Key, leaving the pair and their husky stranded. They abandoned the boat before the Coast Guard arrived.
"I looked across the street and these two people crawled out of the woods right in front of my office and start walking down the sidewalk," Dwayne Day, who owns Funland Watersports on Big Coppitt Key, told Local 10 News. "So I immediately called Monroe County sheriff's 911."
Day said he didn't recognize the pair by face, but their husky stood out as one deputies described traveling with two people possibly connected to Gonzalez's disappearance.
Monroe County sheriff's deputies had been handing out fliers and going to businesses in search of Blanco.
Day said he acted quickly and got on his bike.
"I got in behind them and started following them down the sidewalk," said Day, who followed the pair toward a gas station they were seen frequenting. "And when they saw me following and on the phone, they jumped into the woods."
Day said he turned around and deputies were already pulling up, chasing the pair. Seconds later, he said he saw the two do something bizarre.
"They were trying to put pills in their mouth -- both of them as fast as they could -- and the deputies were trying to get it out of their mouth," Day said.
Deputies said Blanco then stabbed himself in the abdomen and died at a hospital nearby. His mother remained at Lower Keys Medical Center.
Soon after the incident, Miami police swarmed Blanco's home, which he shared with his mother, to execute a search warrant. The pair's intentions or motives remain unclear.
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