A person of interest in the disappearance of 19-year-old Valencia College sophomore Miya Marcano has been found dead of an apparent suicide, according to the Orange County Sherriff’s Office.
Officials said that 27-year-old Armando Manuel Caballero, a person of interest in Marcano’s disappearance, was found dead Monday.
Marcano has been missing since Sept. 24, when officials say she was last seen at her home in the Arden Villas apartment complex in Orlando, just off of University Boulevard a mile from the University of Central Florida.
NBC News Today reports that investigators later found that maintenance worker Armando Manuel Caballero, 27, had access to a master key to complex units which was used to get inside Marcano’s apartment at about 4:30 p.m.
Officials said Marcano worked in the leasing office of the apartment complex and would have been off of her shift by 5 p.m.
Orange County Sheriff John Mina said that Caballero had been called a person of interest in Marcano’s case and detectives were looking for him prior to finding him dead in his apartment in Seminole County.
The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded to a report of a possible suicide at 10:30 a.m. at Camden Club Apartments off of Sabal Lake Drive in Longwood, where they found Caballero’s body.
Mina also told the Orlando Sentinel that “Caballero killed himself and had been ‘dead for quite some time.’” Her car — a silver Ford Fusion with a Florida tag — was recovered at his apartment.
Marcano was supposed to fly out from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale on Friday night to see her family, but did not board the flight — she has not been heard from since last speaking with her father that Friday afternoon.
Marcano’s father told WESH 2 he spoke to his daughter Friday afternoon but didn’t hear from her when she got off work.
Authorities said Caballero had been a maintenance man at the complex since June, and Mina said Caballero expressed a romantic interest in Marcano which was repeatedly denied by the teenager, WESH 2 reports.
Police are asking anyone with information to call the OCSO non-emergency line at 407-836-4357. If anyone sees Miya, the police say to call 911.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Check back with Knight News for updates.
