ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Days after a body was found in the woods near an Orange County apartment complex, the medical examiner has positively identified the remains as 19-year-old Miya Marcano, who went missing more than a week ago.
“As you can imagine, it’s been a very difficult day for the family,” Daryl Washington, the civil rights attorney representing Marcano’s family said. “It’s been extremely tough. And now the family are allowed to be making funeral arrangements at this time.”
The body was found on Saturday, Oct. 2 near Tymber Skan Condominiums off South Texas Avenue. A purse with Marcano’s identification was found near the body, but the medical examiner was required to make the final determination on the body’s identity.
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The news release does not provide any information on how Marcano died.
Investigators said a person of interest in Marcano’s disappearance, Armando Caballero, had once lived at Tymber Skan. Caballero had been found dead on Monday, Sept. 27. Deputies said he had hanged himself inside a garage at an apartment complex in Seminole County.
Prior to her body being found, Marcano was last seen on Friday, Sept. 24 at Arden Villas Apartments near the University of Central Florida, where she lived and worked.
“It’s been a very difficult day for the family. It’s been very tough,” Washington said.
Washington is helping the Marcano family possibly pursue legal action against the apartment complex and lobbed accusations that the recent security measures enforced by Arden Villas weren’t “good enough.”
“Why weren’t they doing it before? There’s just so many major questions that we want to ask,” Washington said.
While Washington said the Arden Villas attorney contacted him, he said neither he nor the family has been contacted personally by Arden Villages management, which was “very disappointing to the family.”
[TIMELINE: Here’s what happened before, after Miya Marcano went missing]
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 — a half-hour prior to Marcano getting off of work.
“This was a vibrant young lady who was living her life and her life was taken away from her,” Washington said. “It’s sad that there are so many young ladies and women in Orlando and throughout this country who are living in fear.”
Sheriff John Mina said Caballero had previously expressed a romantic interest in Marcano, but she had rejected him several times.
“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,” Mina said.
However, Washington said during Tuesday’s news conference that there are still questions to be answered in the investigation.
“We don’t know how she left that apartment complex, we don’t know whether if she was dead or live. But we do know is there were critical hours there were lost,” he said.
Marcano’s life will be honored at the Miami Carnival this weekend.
“(The Miami Carnival) is something that is extremely important... something that Miya has been doing since she was a young kid,” Washington said. “The family wants everybody to go on and honor Miya.”
News 6 has reached out to Arden Villas for comment. Our repeated emails and calls to Arden villas Tuesday have not been returned, but a spokesperson did tell News 6 last week they’ve enhanced their security and all potential employees go through a background check through a national service provider.