PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – Family, friends and members of the community have been gathering across the state to mourn Miya Marcano as an attorney for the family questions the safety precautions taken by the college student’s apartment complex.
Investigators believe they found Marcano’s body Saturday in a wooded area 17 miles from the Arden Villa apartments in Orlando where the 19-year-old Pembroke Pines native lived and worked in the leasing office. An official identification by the medical examiner is pending, but the Orange County Sheriff said they are confident it was Marcano and that a purse with her ID and belongings was found with the body.
Detectives were led to the area by the cell phone data of Armando Caballero, a maintenance worker at the Arden Villa complex. Caballero, named the lone suspect in her disappearance, was found dead by apparent suicide in Seminole County last Monday.
Investigators say Caballero — whose repeated romantic advances toward Marcano were denied — used a master key to get into her apartment before 5 p.m. on Sept. 24, the day she was last seen.
Now, the vetting process for employees at the Arden Villa apartments has come under question and Marcano’s family is looking into legal action for what they are calling negligence on the part of the complex.
“It’s very awful that we have a complex that did not take the proper precautions to assure that this young lady was safe,” attorney Daryl Washington said.
“He is a predator,” Washington said of Caballero. “He shouldn’t have had access to Miya’s apartment. And we believe that there was so much more that could have been done to prevent this.”
Marcano’s father, a disc jockey who goes by the name DJ Eternal Vibes, posted on social media, saying his “heart is shattered” and using the hashtag #foreverinmyheart.
“I would do anything possible right now just to hear your voice again,” he wrote. “I wish I could hold you and tell you I love you.”
He said he would not be returning to South Florida without his daughter’s body. He was supposed to take part in a music festival taking place this coming weekend at Miami’s Bayfront Park.
Meanwhile, a memorial has been growing outside Charles W. Flanagan High School in Pembroke Pines, Marcano’s alma mater.
The City of Pembroke Pines would like to extend our condolences to the family of Miya Marcano.
— City of Pembroke Pines (@cityofppines) October 4, 2021
Miya was a Pembroke Pines resident & graduated from Charles W. Flanagan High School last year. Our thoughts are with her loved ones & the Caribbean community in our city & abroad. pic.twitter.com/DUpFNBxYyD