The Mysterious Miya Marcano Case
19-year-old Miya Marcano went missing on 24th September 2021.
Miya’s Background —
Miya Marcano was born in 2002 in Pembroke Pines, Miami, US. Her father is Marlon Marcano who was a famous DJ in Pembroke Pines, he was generally known as Eternal Vibes. Her mother is Yma Scarbriel and Miya’s parents were separated when Miya was very young. Even though they were separated, both supported Miya for everything such as education and livelihood.
Miya grew up to be a very enthusiastic girl and was very much interested in Carnivals. She participated in many carnivals as she grew up and was also academically very strong. She graduated from school in May 2020.
After Graduation —
After that, she wanted to go for higher studies at the University of Central Florida which is situated in Orlando. In Orlando Miya changed her mind and wanted to study physiotherapy applied to Valencia College and even got admitted to the college. Miya enjoyed her days in her college and was dedicated to what she was doing.
In September 2021, Miya decides to meet her family and spend some quality time with them. For the same, she even books flight tickets. Miya is all set to leave to meet her family on 24th September 2021. On the said day, Miya does not attend calls or respond to messages after 5 PM. Her parents shrugged it off thinking that she is too busy to board the flight and since there is no signal available inside the flight, maybe that is the reason she is unable to attend calls or respond to the messages.
Miya is Missing —
Even after the flight on which Miya was supposed to arrive landed, her parents could not contact her. She did not land, to add more clarity she did not even board the flight as per the list.
Miya’s parents became anxious and kept trying to contact her till 9.30 PM that day but there was still no response from her. Since they became worried they filed a police complaint of a missing person in order to get back in contact with Miya and to find her whereabouts.
Miya’s Room —
Back in Orlando, in addition to her studies, Miya was also working in Arden Villas apartment, a leasing company. Many of the people working in Arden Villas were students and they were staying there due to available facilities. Miya also stayed there, worked, and managed her studies as well.
As soon as this information reaches the police, they send an officer to verify whether Miya is still in her room or not. Once the officer reached out to check, he found out that the door was locked. After some time Miya’s roommate arrives and she opens the door.
The officer finds out that Miya has a separate bedroom that was locked from the inside. The officer tries to knock on the door and gets no response in return. He then checks through the window of her room to find out that the room door is locked by keeping a chair against the door. The officer opens the door somehow and finds out that all the items and furniture inside the room are chaotic.
He finds out jewels lying around and on the side of the bed, there were droplets of blood. Meanwhile, Miya’s parents are coming to Orlando in their car in a panic to find out about their missing daughter. They reach the Arden Villas and while they were with the officer came a man.
Armando Manuel Caballero —
Armando Manuel Caballero was the maintenance man of Arden Villas. He had repeatedly flirted with Miya while she was staying in Arden Villas and has requested her to go out on dates with him several times. He even promised through text messages to provide her with his lifetime savings. Miya kept avoiding him and had strictly told him that he is nothing more than a friend to her.
Around 4 AM in the morning while the police were still looking for Miya in Arden Villas, Miya’a mother spots Armando and yells at him to tell her the whereabouts of Miya. She claimed that she knew he had troubled Miya a lot and she had seen the text messages that he had sent to Miya.
Armando explained that he had just come out to meet his friend Tarti. Police were not much doubtful of Armando then so they let him go. After some time since Miya’s parents had nowhere to go so they decided to rest for some time in their car which they had parked in the parking area of Arden Villas.
Soon that morning Miya’s mother saw Armando taking a bedsheet out of his car which was parked opposite to their car. At one glance Miya’s mother identified that it was Miya’s bedsheet, she was shocked as soon as she witnessed it so she recorded everything on her phone. After that, she immediately calls the police but since the police did not have any search warrant at the moment they could not search Armando’s place but they request him and he allows the police to do so. On checking and going through Armando’s room, nothing was found, therefore the police left Armando to be free.
Arden Villas —
On 24th September 2021, Miya had done her work as per her shift and it ended at 5 PM. So her plan was to finish packing quickly so that she does not miss the flight. But after the shift got over Miya was nowhere found.
On further investigation, it was found that in Arden Villas, there is a digital card key for each apartment in Arden Villas. How the key functions are, when the card is placed before the device at the door, it unlocks the door. There was a master key for Arden Villas through which any door in there can be unlocked. That master key was in possession of Armando.
The police check the security door lock system by checking which keys were used to open Miya’s door. it was found that Armando had opened Miya’s door on the 24th evening using the master key. After acquiring this information, Armando is made the prime suspect and an arrest warrant is issued against him on 25th September 2021, 4:30 PM. But Armando went missing since 3 PM that day.
The police began investigating about Armando. On 27th September 2021, Armando’s body was found hanging in his apartment’s garage and the police suspected that he had committed suicide. They did so because they speculated that Armando is the reason behind Miya going missing and in fear of police and getting arrested he committed suicide (but this is still a suspicion there is no concluding evidence).
Finding Miya —
After losing hope due to Armando’s death, police suspected that maybe Miya is dead too. They searched the entire Orlando and on 2nd October 2021, around 10:45 PM, they found a dead body of a young woman in Tymper Skan which was almost decayed on search identified Miya’s purse and confirmed that it was Miya’s dead body. Miya’s body is sent for autopsy but since it was almost decayed the cause of death could not be identified.
On investigation, it was found that in 2013, Armando was arrested for blasting a homemade explosive in a secondary school and he gave a very careless excuse that ‘he was just doing it for a prank’. Also, similar to his flirtatious attitude towards Miya, he had done so with another girl who was working in Arden Villas in March 2021. He had pestered that girl to go on dates with him and on refusal one night he had thrown a dumbbell (gym equipment) in that girl’s apartment by breaking the window.
Even after all these Arden Villas had provided Armando with the master key without thoroughly doing basic background verification about him. The case is closed as an unsolved case as the prime suspect Armando is also dead.
