ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A body believed to be missing 19-year-old Miya Marcano was found in a wooded area during a search near an apartment complex Saturday morning, according to Orange County Sheriff John Mina.
The sheriff said their emergency response team was searching the area of Tymber Skan Condominiums off South Texas Avenue when they found the body around 10:45 a.m. Mina said Armando Caballero, a person of interest who was found dead of an apparent suicide earlier this week, had lived at this complex at one time.
[TIMELINE: Here’s what happened before, after Miya Marcano went missing]
A purse with Miya’s identification was found near the body, but official identification will need to come from the medical examiner’s office “although we are very certain of the identity.”
“Everyone wanted this outcome to be different,” he said.
Marcano was last seen around 5 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 24, at the Arden Villas Apartments near the University of Central Florida. It is not clear when she was reported missing, but her father told News 6 his daughter was supposed to fly to Fort Lauderdale that day. Officials said a maintenance-issued master key fob, which Caballero was known to be in possession of, was used to enter her apartment around 4:30 p.m on Sept. 24.
Six months of cell phone data was requested as part of the investigation, which the sheriff’s office received Wednesday, according to the sheriff. Mina said cell phone records showed Caballero was in or near the Tymber Skan complex between 8-9 p.m. the day Marcano was last seen, and there was no indication he returned prior to his death.
“That data put him all over: Orange County, Seminole County, Volusia County ... Again, the reason we were so intense and focused on the New Smyrna Beach area was because he spent the longest amount of time there. He was there for an hour in a marshy wooded area,” he said.
The sheriff said he believes Caballero was “trying to throw authorities off the trail,” and thinks detectives will be able to “piece together pretty good what happened.” At least two cell phones and keys are still being searched for connected with this case, Mina said.
Investigators announced days after her disappearance that Caballero was found dead at a Seminole County apartment complex. Caballero was a maintenance worker at Arden Villas since June, according to officials.
“We are not looking for any other people. We believe, pretty conclusively, that Armando Caballero is responsible for this crime and there’s not any other person or persons that we are looking for in this case,” he said.
Mina said over 60 detectives worked exclusively on this case. The FBI also joined local agencies this week to assist in the investigation.