Family of Miya Marcano: "Keep holding on. We're coming"
ORLANDO, Fla. - The family of 19-year-old Miya Marcano gathered in Orlando on Tuesday to continue searching for the missing college student.
"I'm still very hopeful that we're going to find her," Marcano's cousin told news outlets.
Family from South Florida and Canada are coming to Orlando to help search for Miya. Deputies said she was last seen around 3 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 24, at the Arden Villas apartments, located at 3303 Arden Villas Boulevard in Orlando.
Miya was supposed to fly to Fort Lauderdale from Orlando but never boarded the plane.
The person of interest in her disappearance, 27-year-old Armando Manuel Caballero, was found dead from an apparent suicide.
"I think it was a cowardly act," Marcano's cousin said. "If he knew anything, he took that information with him."
Caballero was a maintenance person at the Arden Villas Apartments where he had worked since June, according to investigators. Sheriff Mina said Marcano lives and works at the apartment complex.
Deputies say someone entered Miya's room on Friday 30 minutes before her shift ended using a master key, which Caballero was known to have. On Tuesday, her cousin described a necklace that Miya always wears that was found broken on the ground of her bedroom.
In the news conference, the sheriff said it appears to have been a situation where Caballero might have developed a romantic interest in Marcano but she wasn't interested in that way.
Miya had reportedly told friends that Caballero had been texting her excessively and she asked him to stop. After stopping, he reportedly started back up again.
"She did tell them that he made her feel uncomfortable," her cousin said.
Deputies spent all weekend trying to track down Caballero. Seminole County deputies eventually found him dead at around 10:30 a.m. on Monday morning outside some apartments on Sabal Lake Drive in Longwood.
"We are not leaving Orlando until we bring Miya home," said Miya’s aunt, Semone Westmaas.
Her cousin says maybe Miya is hurt or disabled in some way and can't get out of where she is.
Miya's cousin had a message for her beloved relative.
"We're looking for you. We're coming for you. You keep holding on. Please, keep holding on for us. We're coming."
The Orange County Sheriff's Office said on Monday that Marcano is a student at Valencia College.
Sheriff Mina said approximately 30 detectives were working on the case. He mentioned a search of Marcano's apartment turned up a few items "considered to be suspicious," though he would not elaborate, adding that it was an ongoing investigation.
Anyone with information can call the Sheriff's Office's non-emergency line at 407-836-4357 or 911.
Watch FOX 35 News for the latest Central Florida stories.