ORLANDO, Fla. – The family of a slain college student released a video on Wednesday showing an Orange County Sheriff’s Office deputy allowed her killer to drive away.
Orange County Sheriff John Mina said when the video was recorded Armando Caballero had already abandoned Miya Marcano’s body at Tymber Skan on the Lake Condominium and she was wearing blue jeans and a bra.
Authorities found Caballero, a 27-year-old Arden Villas maintenance worker, dead by suicide on Sept. 27 in Seminole County, and Marcano, a 19-year-old Arden Villas resident and Valencia College student, dead on Oct. 2 in Orange County.
“There is no indication that there was sexual assault of any kind,” Mina said, adding Caballero used black duct tape to cover Marcano’s mouth and to tie her hands and feet.
Attorney Daryl K. Washington, who represents Marcano’s family, released a statement with the video on Wednesday saying a deputy dismissed evidence and said her disappearance “wasn’t a high priority case.”
“The person responsible for her death was Armando Caballero,” Mina said in response to the family’s accusation that deputies didn’t do enough.
Mina said the deputy in the video didn’t have enough evidence at the time to consider Caballero a suspect. He also said detectives are still searching for two cell phones and a set of keys, as the investigation was still ongoing.
The family’s 3-minute video shows Marcano’s relatives confronted Caballero as “obsessive” on Sept. 25, hours after she had missed a Sept. 24 scheduled flight back home.
Marcano’s aunt found it suspicious that Caballero asked her if they were searching for her. Mina said Caballero had some type of “romantic interest” and Marcano had rejected him.
“You have sent obsessive texts to Miya,” a relative said in the video. “We have all seen the texts. You talked about giving her your life savings.”
Marcano’s relative told Caballero he had an “obsession” with her and said it was odd that he was at Arden Villas during nonworking hours.
“It’s not only from my side, so don’t try to make this like I’m a stalker … If I’m guilty why would I come here,” Caballero said during the confrontation.
According to Washington, an Arden Villas security guard tried to lift fingerprints from Marcano’s window, and relatives found a box cutter in her apartment that didn’t belong to her, yet the deputy didn’t consider either of it important.
The video shows that after the confrontation, a deputy talked to Caballero and allowed him to get back into his car and leave — even though they told the deputy Caballero had a blanket that belonged to Marcano in his car.
Washington also says the Arden Villas complex was negligent in keeping Marcano safe, which prompted tenants to protest Wednesday night.
“Safety is a major issue,” said student Deandra Smith. “I’ve had a bunch of times maintenance walking in without knocking on the doors.”
Tenants say they want more security and lights added to the property.
Washington has alluded to future litigation against Arden Villas and possibly the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.