Apartment complex near where Miya Marcano disappeared makes changes to security
ORLANDO, Fla. - FOX 35 News has learned that the parent company of Arden Villas, Preiss, also owns another apartment complex in Orlando.
Orion on Orpington is just a few miles from the Arden Villas.
Miya Marcano didn’t live at Orion on Orpington, but her presence is still felt at the apartment complex.
Signs with her picture still hang on some of the buildings.
"I know it raises a lot of concerns that people know it’s the same company, the same building, whoever owns it," Ashely Cardona, a resident of Orion on Orpington said. "It’s very tragic to hear about and then the fact that it could be anybody."
Preiss owns apartment complexes primarily for college students in several states. It owns Orion on Orpington where Ashley Cardona and many other students live.
Miya Marcano, 19, was reported missing after she did not board a scheduled flight from Orlando to Ft. Lauderdale on Friday, Sept. 24, 2021.
It also owns Arden Villas where Miya Marcano lived and worked, and where investigators say a maintenance worker, Armando Caballero, entered her apartment with a master key just before she disappeared.
"I know a lot of students have been concerned about who gets access to the master key," Cardona said.
Students who live at Orion said management at the apartments did not address Miya’s death or Arden Villas specifically, but UCF sophomore Lindsey Peterson said the company sent an email to residents last week about security changes at the complex.
"They’re having a guard here from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. to check to see if the people here have the parking decals to live here, and if they don’t [they have] to provide a valid ID and the name and apartment number of the person they’re visiting," Peterson said.
The changes at Orion are similar to the changes the company made at Arden Villas.
Some UCF Football players who knew missing teen will play in her honor
Miya Marcano was a student at Valencia College but the apartment complex where is near the University of Central Florida. Some of the team's football players said they knew the missing Orlando teen and said they intend to honor her this weekend.
Arden Villas released a statement last week saying it added a guard to the front gate and upgraded maintenance procedures for appointment-only bookings.
It also said, "We are in the process of reviewing our entire security apparatus and will make changes or upgrades as warranted."
Cardona and Peterson both said they haven’t had any issues with maintenance workers entering their apartments at the complex, but they know it happened to Miya and they’re wondering how.
"I think now that this case with her happened, it’s a question that goes through my head of who has the master fob," Cardona said.
FOX 35 reached out to Preiss to ask about security changes at Orion and at other complexes the company owns, including in Gainesville and Tallahassee. The company has not responded as of the publication of this story.
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