Sept. 28 (UPI) — The family of a missing 19-year-old Florida woman on Tuesday shared details suggesting a struggle took place in her apartment before her disappearance.
A cousin of Miya Marcano said the missing woman’s room at Arden Villas Apartments in Orlando, where she lived and worked, was in “disarray” with blood on a pillow, dirt on the floor, jewelry on the ground and her bed unmade.
The cousin said the scene was unusual as a necklace she frequently wore was found broken on the floor. The cousin added that Marcano was meticulously clean and did not wear shoes in her carpeted bedroom.
Marcano, who worked in the apartment building’s leasing office, was last seen around 5 p.m. Friday and was reported missing after she failed to board a flight to visit family in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Armando Manuel Caballero, a maintenance worker at the apartment complex who was named as a person of interest in the case, was found dead of an apparent suicide at Camden Club Apartments in Seminole County on Monday.
Semone Westmaas, Marcano’s aunt, said Caballero approached her the day after her niece’s disappearance as the family looked for her.
“He said, ‘Are you looking for Miya?’ I said, ‘Who are you?’ He said, ‘I’m her maintenance guy. I heard you are looking for me,'” said Westmaas.
Authorities said Caballero expressed a romantic interest in Marcano, but that she had rebuffed his attention. Caballero allegedly used a master key fob to enter Marcano’s apartment about 30 minutes before she was due to finish her shift at the complex Friday.
“If he knew anything, he took that information with him,” Marcano’s cousin said of Caballero.
Police on Monday also placed crime scene tape in a wooded area near where Caballero was found dead, but did not provide details on any developments.
Marcano’s family also pleaded for her safe return.
“All we ask is you help us bring Miya home,” Marcano’s grandmother Joysue Thompson, said. “Bring her home safe, just drop her off and let us know where she is and we’ll pick her up — just bring her home.”
