Maintenance worker suspected in disappearance of Miya Marcano found dead
A maintenance worker suspected in the disappearance of a Florida college student was found dead in an apparent suicide Monday.
Police are still frantically searching for 19-year-old Miya Marcano after she vanished on Friday night from the Arden Villas apartment block in Orlando where she lived and worked.
Armando Manuel Caballero, 27, was a maintenance worker at the apartment complex and had developed a “romantic interest” in Marcano, Orange County Sheriff’s deputies told reporters Monday.
Marcano had repeatedly rebuffed his advances, Sheriff John Mina said.
Authorities were searching for Caballero as a person of interest in Marcano’s disappearance before he was found dead Monday afternoon in his own apartment, which is not located within the complex. The sheriff said it appeared Caballero killed himself and was dead for “quite some time” before he was found.
Marcano, a sophomore at the nearby Valencia Community College, was reported missing after she failed to board a flight to Fort Lauderdale Friday night to visit her parents.
Deputies who initially responded to the scene spoke to Caballero, but he was not considered a suspect at the time.
Authorities found a number of “suspicious” items inside Marcano’s apartment but would not elaborate on what they uncovered. Deputies had previously told Fox35 they found blood on her pillow and that her bedroom door had been blocked.
The sheriff said they have since learned Caballero used a master key to access Marcano’s apartment about 30 minutes before she was scheduled to finish work.
Marcano works in the complex’s onsite leasing office.
Investigators are reviewing surveillance footage as part of the missing person’s case.
The sheriff said they are treating Marcano’s disappearance as “suspicious” and they suspect “foul play.”
Authorities spent the weekend trawling the area, including in a wooded area behind Marcano’s apartment block.
There was a large law enforcement presence, including helicopters, around the apartment complex on Monday.
“All we ask you is help us bring Miya home,” Joysue Thompson, Marcano’s grandmother, told reporters amid the weekend search.
“Bring her home safe. Drop her off. Let us know where she is. We will pick her up. Just bring her home.”