COOPER CITY, Fla. – Family and friends of Miya Marcano packed the Cooper City Church of God on Thursday for a funeral service that was at times somber but also a celebratory farewell.
A crown rested atop the late college student’s painted casket as loved ones shared their memories of her vibrant personality.
Hundreds had filled the same church at 9191 Stirling Road a night earlier, remembering the life the 19-year-old lived before her killing.
Marcano, a 2020 graduate of Charles W. Flanagan High School in Pembroke Pines, was murdered in the Orlando area where she attended college. Police say the killer was her co-worker, a maintenance man at the Arden Villa apartment complex where Marcano lived and worked in the leasing office.
Investigators say Armando Caballero, 27, romantically pursued Marcano but she wasn’t interested.
He eventually killed himself.
Marcano’s body was found Oct. 2 — more than a week after she had gone missing — in a marshy wooded area in Central Florida where detectives say Caballero had been on the night of Sept. 24.
Marcano’s family and a pastor emphasized the importance of respecting a woman saying no.
The family is now making it a mission through the Miya Marcano Foundation to help families of missing people and to help protect college students and the vulnerable.
For more information about the foundation, and to donate to the Miya Marcano Memorial Fund, visit miyamarcanofdn.com.