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Miya Marcano's Family Says Missing Florida Teen Was Kidnapped, And They Want The FBI To Join The Case
Armando Manuel Caballero, identified as a person of interest in Miya Marcano's disappearance, was found dead from an apparent suicide, authorities say.
Miya Marcano has been missing for nearly one week and now her family wants the FBI’s help searching for the 19-year-old Florida college student, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
Her aunt told a local news station WESH that Marcano was kidnapped and evidence shows she was taken out of a window, not through the front door.
“Miya was kidnapped. Miya was kidnapped out of her room at Arden Villas through her bedroom window. I’m calling on all resources, the FBI, we need you,” Miya’s aunt, Semome Westmaas, told the station. “We want Miya to be found, and whoever is involved ... we’re asking you to find them.”
But a spokesperson for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office would not respond to those claims, according to the Sentinel. He said the agency did not have any additional details to release and was “not able to share specifics of the investigations.”
Relatives said they found signs of a struggle and blood in her bedroom after she disappeared, WFLA reported.
As previously reported by Oxygen.com, one of two gold necklaces that Marcano always wore was found broken on her bedroom floor and her belongings were scattered around the room; there was dirt on the floor. Relatives said that was odd because the young woman always removed her shoes before entering her carpeted bedroom, WPLG reported.
A maintenance man who was a person of interest in her disappearance was found dead of an apparent suicide, investigators said.
Armando Manuel Caballero’s body was discovered on Monday at an apartment complex in Seminole County, Orange County Sheriff John Mina told reporters earlier this week. It appears that the 27-year-old died by suicide; he had been dead for several days, Mina added. His silver Ford Fusion with Florida license plates was also found at the scene, deputies said.
As Oxygen.com previously reported, Marcano was last seen Friday at the Arden Villas Apartment Complex in Orlando at 5 p.m., where she lived, and also worked in the leasing office. Caballero also worked at the complex and had expressed a romantic interest in Marcano, but his advances were rejected, Mina said.
He allegedly entered Marcano’s apartment around 4:30 p.m.—30 minutes before she was scheduled to leave work. Deputies were preparing to arrest Caballero for burglary because he entered Marcano’s apartment illegally with a master key, Mina said.
Before he was considered “a person of interest,” Caballero told deputies he last saw Marcano about two hours before she disappeared, while they were both working, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
Marcano’s father, Marlon Marcano, told WESH that he last spoke to his daughter on Friday afternoon, but didn’t hear from her when she got off work.
Marcano, a sophomore at Valencia College, was expected to fly to Fort Lauderdale on Friday night to visit family, but missed the flight and hasn’t been seen or heard from since, the station reported.
Family and friends have been searching for Marcano since she disappeared. They have created an Instagram account, “BringMiyaHome.”
