Authorities have found a body in Orange County, Florida, believed to be the remains of missing college student Miya Marcano, the sheriff announced Saturday.
John Mina, the Orange County sheriff, said they are “very certain of the identity” but declined to identify what is believed to be the 19-year-old’s body, saying confirming the identification and cause of death was the medical examiner’s responsibility. Officials have notified Marcano’s family.
“Everyone wanted this outcome to be different,” Mina said during a press conference Saturday.
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The body was found in a wooded area outside of an apartment complex in Orange County, and a nearby purse contained Marcano’s identification, Mina said. The police were led there when investigating the movements of “prime suspect” Armando Caballero, a 27-year-old maintenance worker who worked at Marcano’s apartment complex, where she was also employed, the sheriff added. Caballero’s phone records had put him in the area where the body was found, shortly after Marcano’s disappearance, according to the sheriff’s department. Caballero was found dead Monday morning of an apparent suicide.
Over 100 law enforcement officials and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been working on the case, and a search for Marcano, who has been missing since Sept. 24, has stretched across three counties.
Marcano, who was a student at Valencia College, was reported missing on Sept. 24 after she missed a plane to return home to South Florida. Caballero had made romantic advances on Marcano, who had rebuffed him, Mina said. The electronic key fob that gave him access to every apartment had been used on her apartment shortly before she went missing.
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Marcano’s apparent death follows similar outcomes from other high-profile missing person cases in recent weeks. The remains of Gabby Petito, 22, were found in Wyoming on Sept. 19 following a nationwide manhunt. Petito’s boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, has since gone missing, and there is a warrant for his arrest in connection to Petito’s death.
