Going West: True Crime - Miya Marcano // 142

Episode Date: October 13, 2021

In September 2021, a 19-year-old woman headed to her apartment in Orlando, Florida after work to prepare for an evening flight to her parents house, but she never boarded the plane. Her concerned family drove to her apartment to check on her, only to find a disturbance in her bedroom. A prime suspect was quickly identified, but when he was found dead 2 days later, the search for this young women intensified. This is the story of Miya Marcano. MIYA MARCANO FOUNDATION https://miyamarcanofdn.com BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES https://www.wesh.com/article/miya-marcano-missing-latest/37772385 https://www.local10.com/news/local/2021/10/06/bma/ https://www.wesh.com/article/womens-fall-jackets-coats/37909073 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/miya-marcano-murder-suspect-attack-b1932157.html https://todayuknews.com/travel/miya-marcanos-family-thank-supporters-as-they-await-autopsy-results/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans, I'm your host Tee? And I'm your other host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hope everyone has had a great week. Heath and I just got back from Colorado. There's a good trip. Yeah, it was kind of hot while we were there, but we did get to stay at the Stanley Hotel, which was, you know, kind of a lifelong dream for, I think, both of us.

Yeah, we did that on my birthday night. It was super fun. We did like a nighttime ghost tour. It was cool. Yeah. So thank you, everybody, for tuning in today. Heath and I have been following Mia's case and planning for today's release, even before it became resolved about a week and a half ago.

But we still feel that it's an important story to share because what happened to Mia should not have occurred, and it was preventable, not by her of course. But action is now being taken because of what happened to her, so we really wanted to share her story. I know a lot of you guys have asked us to cover her story as it's been unfolding over the last few weeks, so thanks again for tuning in. Also, thank you guys so much for everyone who's joined our Patreon in the past week. That's where you guys can find bonus episodes, and we do give shout outs at the end of every

regular episode. Alright guys, this is episode 142 of Going West, so let's get into it. South Florida family desperate to find their missing teenage. Adding to the urgency, the person of interest in the Central Florida case has now been found dead, joining us now with the new developments in the search for Mia Mercano. We miss you and fight. We're here and we are waiting for you. This family believes in God.

We believe in hope and we have faith. Mia attends Valencia College in Orlando. She went missing from her Orlando apartment. Orange County Sheriff John Minnes says Marconnell's disappearance is suspicious. He and the family suspect foul play. See, this is not the update that I wanted to give to everyone today. Earlier today, the Orange County Sheriff's Office emergency response team was searching

the area of Timmer's Scan Apartments that's off of South Texas Avenue in Orange County. And that's when they discovered a body we believed to be that of Mia Mercano. Mia Mercano, whose family called her Mimi, was born on April 26, 2002 in Florida to parents Ima Scarbriel and Marlin Mercano. Later came her brother Marlin Mercano Jr., who goes by Muncie. And we really couldn't find anything about Mia's mom, Ima, but we know that Mia spent her upbringing in both South Florida and the British Virgin Islands. Also, an important member of her life is a woman named Jizelle Blanche, who is really close with her dad, Marlon, and kind of acted as an aunt and kind of a bonus mom to Mia.

Her parents seem like incredibly loving and fun people. I mean, Marlin is a DJ who goes by DJ Eternal Vibes based in Florida, and we know that Jacelle goes by the Wassey one, and she's a radio character, a band leader, and cultural ambassador of the Caribbean. So it seems like Mia grew up with very creative, fun, and caring family members. And by all accounts, it doesn't seem like her parents are together, but either way, it seems like Mia grew up surrounded by so much love. And you can just tell this by looking at photos of them together. Mia graduated from high school just last year in the spring of 2020 from Flanagan High

School in Pembroke Pines, Florida, which is in Broward County and just outside of Miami. And it must have been a very tough and confusing time to graduate because of COVID, and I say that because she posted on Facebook how she wanted to go to prom, which was canceled because of COVID. But once she graduated and posted photos of her with big smiles alongside her diploma, she emphasized how excited she really was. And her caption read, I am officially a Flanagan High School graduate.

These past four years have been very challenging for me, especially having to graduate during a pandemic, but I never gave up. I kept going. I want to take a moment to thank my family and my friends for being there for me every step of the way. I am beyond ready for this next chapter in my life. Mia seemed like she just loved living life to the fullest and having fun, and a way she enjoyed doing this was by going to Carnival, and she always looked really amazing and dressed up in the most

Extravagant feathered costume. Yeah, she always looked so good She has a lot of pictures on her Facebook that we found and she really went all out. Yeah, and since her parents were very much into this festival and Party scene they were all very into this so it seemed to be something that they connected on, and were all very passionate about. Mia's family lived in the nearby town of Fort Lauderdale, but after graduating from high school, Mia headed off to Valencia College in Orlando, which is about a three hour drive north of her hometown. And we're not completely sure why Mia moved to Orlando specifically, because Valencia is a community college.

And you know, many people traveled to go to different community colleges, but we also know that Mia had a job at the apartment complex that she lived at. The Arden Villa Apartments in Orlando. She worked in the leasing office while she was pursuing an arts degree, and as she finished her freshman year in the spring of 2021, she turned 19 years old and then spent the summer hitting the beach as much as possible before her sophomore year began this past August. She continued to work at her apartment building, but on Friday, September 24, 2021, Mia went

missing. That day, Mia worked until about 5pm, and she was set to head home to her apartment before going to the Orlando airport to catch a flight home to Fort Lauderdale to see her parents. So the flight from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale is about an hour long and I read that she was going to take off at 10.30pmish but I also read that she was going to land around that time so it's a little fuzzy but I'm pretty sure she was supposed to leave Orlando for Fort Lauderdale at 10.30 p.m. But Mia never checked into her flight nor did she answer her family's texts or calls after she left work that day.

And because of this, Jacelle called the Orange County Sheriff's Office and she actually asked them to do a welfare check at around 9.30 pm. So, they did this about 20 minutes later, but it didn't appear that Mia was home. And this concerned her family even more, who waited at the airport in Fort Lauderdale, just hoping that she would walk out, but she never did. And this was, of course, incredibly alarming, so some of Mia's relatives actually drove to Orlando that night to physically check on her and they arrived around 3am. When they knocked on her apartment door, her roommate answered and explained that Mia hadn't

been home all night. The roommate had been at work while Mia was and didn't arrive home until the evening and hadn't seen her at all. With that, Mia's family called the police again to report her missing, and due to the odd circumstances of her missing her flight, not answering her phone and not being home, police went back to her apartment. A deputy searched Mia's apartment alongside Mia's roommate, and they found that a dresser was blocking the inside of Mia's bedroom door, there was a blood stain on her pillow,

her room was in disarray, and her window had been tampered with. That same morning, while Mia's family was outside in the parking lot of the apartment complex with police, the maintenance man arrived to express his concerns for Mia's location, and her family had some words about it. And we posted this video on our socials, but basically the family explains to 27-year-old Armando Caballero that he sent Mia obsessive texts that he talked about giving her his life savings and would even randomly cash up her money unwarranted. Armando stood there and denied saying or doing any of this, while one of Mia's relatives

said, you're fascinated with Mia. Armando's response was, it's not only from my side, so don't try to make this like I'm a stalker. But the text apparently said otherwise, that Mia consistently rejected his advances towards her. Armando also said, this is your family, but until we figure out what's going on, don't beat me up. To which her relative responded, nobody's beating you up.

And Armando replied with, if I was guilty, why would I be here? According to Armando, he hadn't seen Mia since 3pm that day at work. And he wasn't living at this apartment complex and said he came out because he was concerned about her after her phone was turned off that night. But Mia's family was incredibly suspicious that he had bad intentions and police began looking into this guy. And it's just weird that he said, if I was guilty, why would I be here? Like guilty of what?

Nobody knows where she is, and she just went missing. Like that's such a red flag. Exactly, yeah. Like you're basically kind of almost admitting to guilt here. Well, also another thing is, why would you go to me as apartment in the middle of the night, just because her phone was turned off?

Like you're not her boyfriend, you're not her best friend, you're not her brother. to Mia's apartment in the middle of the night, just because her phone was turned off. Like you're not her boyfriend, you're not her best friend, you're not her brother. Why would you feel the need to do that? Right, you're kind of, you know, no one in her life. You're not a part of her life, so there's really no need for you to go to her apartment complex in the middle of the night. Yeah, that's also a huge red flag. And for those wondering how Mia's family knew about these texts between Mia and Armando,

so basically when they were getting ready to head to Orlando, the family, some of Mia's friends explained that there was a maintenance man that worked in her building that had been making her uncomfortable. So later that morning after Mia was reported missing and after they were talking to Armando in the parking lot. The local police department actually responded to a call from Mia's family saying that they saw Armando removing gloves, a backpack, and a pink blanket from his car at his apartment. And Mia's family got this on video because as we said, they were suspicious of him from

the jump. Yeah, and this is honestly kind of amazing because they're like, okay, they're following him. Yeah, if nobody's going to help us do this, we're going to go do it ourselves. We're going to literally, you know, stake this guy out. And I love that. I think I think that's amazing. It just shows how much they care about her and how much they just knew something was wrong because if she missed her flight, she's not answering her phone, she's not at her apartment, they know that something is wrong. So Armando

lived at the San Jose Apartments, which is in Castlebury and around a 20-minute drive from Mia's apartment. An hour later at about 10am police arrived at Armando's apartment and with his permission they watched as Mia's family peaked inside to see if Mia was in there. Armando left his apartment that day at 3pm, and shortly after, police were officially considering him a potential suspect in Mia's disappearance. And by 6pm that day, so Saturday, September 25, 2021, around 24 hours after Mia was last seen, Mia was officially declared a missing person and police released a bulletin and a statement in regards to her disappearance.

It stated that Mia was a 19 year old black female with brown hair, green eyes, standing at 5 feet tall and weighing 130 pounds. Mia had various tattoos including Roman numerals across her top right shoulder, butterflies on her left forearm, etc. And it described that she was last seen on September 24th at the Arden Villa's apartment complex, and that if anyone had any information, to please call their non-emergency line. So I mean, police really jumped on this immediately. They didn't waste any time at all, which is amazing because at 19, Mia was an adult, but they didn't let that stop them with an excuse like, she's allowed to go off if she wants to. Yeah, and we often see that happen in a lot of missing person cases way too often and

By the way not to confuse anybody, but she had been officially declared a missing person that Saturday evening like I said around 6 p.m But she had been entered as a missing person into the system by police in the wee hours of that morning after they went to her apartment. So they had been treating her like a missing person all day, of course. So as that night progressed into the following morning, police continued to search me as apartment inside and out for any clues. They also had people searching on the ground and in the air in the general area, as well as the wooded area behind the Ardenville's apartment complex.

In the following day, Sunday, September 26th, police finally accessed records from the building and they discovered that Armando Cavallero used his master key to enter Mia's apartment the afternoon that she went missing. And Mia's family had been trying to access both the security footage and the key fob swipe records for about two days by this point, but the apartment complex manager wasn't allowing them to review any of it and said that they needed police to ask them directly, which was not done until two days into Mia's disappearance. But when they finally did, things started to become more clear.

Being a maintenance worker at this complex, since June of 2021, Armando had a key fob that allowed him access into any apartment in the complex. And it's all electrical and traceable, so the key fob basically scans against the door with a tap, like you would do at a hotel with a key card. At 2.14pm on Friday, September 24th, while Mia and her roommate were at work, the deadbolt in Mia's apartment was opened by the maintenance key fob, which was known to be in Armando's possession. The dead bull in Mia's apartment was opened again

with the maintenance key fob at 4.34 pm, so over two hours later. And as we know, Mia got off work around 5 pm that day, and a few minutes later, at 5.06 pm, Mia used her key fob to enter her apartment. And Mia wasn't seen after this. And then later that night, police had discovered that her dresser was pushed in front of her bedroom door

and her bedroom window had been tampered with. And of course, the blood on the pillow. So, this was really not looking good. Yeah, so to kind of recap, that means that the maintenance key fob, like Keith Keith said was used at 4.34 pm. That's only 30 minutes before Mia went into her apartment. Right. Which is really terrifying.

Yeah, especially if you don't have any scheduled maintenance that needs to be done in your specific apartment. Right, and this is the whole problem with this is this is the second time that the maintenance key fob was used at me as a apartment, there's no maintenance needed, and no one's home. So this is a huge problem. So via the security footage, police saw Armando Cabalero's car leaving the Arden Villas at 5.52 pm, so nearly 50 minutes after Mia got home. And he quickly became a person of interest in Mia's disappearance, who was still nowhere

to be found by Sunday evening. An hour after Armando's car was seen leaving the complex, he placed a maintenance call at 7.01pm again Friday night, and we're not sure the details of this call. But 10 minutes later, at 7.11 pm, Armando contacted the apartment office staff and asked to be led into the gate. And 5 minutes later, at 7.16 pm, Mia's key fob was swiped to enter her apartment, but no one entered. Then almost 20 minutes later at 7.38pm, Armando's car is seen leaving the Arden Villa apartments again. And after uncovering all this, it was very clear to police that Armando had more than likely done something to Mia Marcono,

so they issued a search warrant for his apartment. The following morning, on Monday, September 27, 2021, 27-year-old Armando Caballero was found dead by suicide. Very few sources state who found him, but we read that a woman found him at the Sebal Club Apartments in the Orlando area, possibly an employee, and he was found hanging in the maintenance garage. This woman called the police and stated, we found a suicide on property, and she also mentioned to the police that she went into the garage because that's where they stored the paint for the building, and that's when she found a young man dead. After police arrived to the scene, they confirmed that it was Armando Caballero,

and he was officially pronounced dead. Orange County Sheriff John Mina stated that he had likely been dead, quote, for quite some time. And as we stated, he had last been seen on Saturday, which was two days earlier, at around 3pm, leaving his apartment just a few hours after police searched it. So we could have gone to his final location at any time after that. Armando's car was found at the scene, and it was taken away by

authorities. So at this point, very little is known about Armando Caballero. His private Instagram bio reads, God, family, success, student, athlete at Warner University. And at Warner, he had been a quarterback on their football team. He only has 14 Instagram posts, which again are privates. I can't look at them. So it doesn't seem he really used Instagram and the bio could definitely be old. Warner University is in Lake Wales, Florida, which is about an hour from Orlando.

We're not sure when he stopped going there or if he graduated, but we know that he was previously on the varsity football team at Colonial High School in Orlando and graduated in 2013. But his Facebook, which also doesn't really have very much information on it, states that his hometown is Orlando, Florida, where he was living when he died. And another thing we do know about Armando is that there was an incident with another woman just six months before Mia disappeared.

On March 17, 2021, a 23-year-old woman reported Armando to the police after her bedroom window was smashed at around midnight. She stated that she didn't know who did it, but a five-pound gym weight was thrown through her window. Later Later she told police that she suspected the maintenance worker at her apartment complex, Armando Caballero, had done this after she turned down his romantic advances. This woman had originally agreed to a date, but when he requested that they move the date sooner, she changed her mind altogether and just decided that she wasn't interested in him. The woman had a note from Armando where he asked her out and his fingerprints were identified on this note, but unfortunately there were no fingerprints found on the gym weight, so

this case was closed due to lack of evidence connecting Armando to this crime. And this happened at the Sabal Club Apartments, which just so happened to be the same apartments that Armando was found dead at. So this was obviously a very alarming and disturbing discovery in the case, because police and Mia's family believed more than ever that something very bad had happened to Mia, and that Armando was behind it. So the next day, Tuesday, September 28, 2021, Mia's family and friends, as well as the local sheriff's office, put together search teams starting at the Sebald Club Apartments

and the surrounding Wooded Area in hopes of finding her alive and well. Then that night, a prayer vigil was held for me at the Arden Villas and in the days to follow Orange County Police focused their search efforts on the area around the Arden Villas and the areas within a 30-mile radius. On Thursday September 30th an independent group called Marco Patriots arrived at the Arden Villas with 10 members and a search dog to help in the search as well. So there was just a lot of people out there looking for Mia, between officers, family, friends, neighbors, local organizations, cadaver dogs, etc. When Mia was last seen, she was wearing a reddish pink shirt that said, the Prius co. Black jeans and a black hoodie.

Again feeling confident that Armando was behind something sinister, police accessed his phone records and they found that from 8.20pm to 8.40pm on the night that Mia went missing, Armando's phone was near the timber scan apartments in Orlando, which is an incredibly dilapidated and abandoned apartment complex. And it's been this way for many years, with most of the apartments rotting, decaying, and completely falling apart. This was a pretty big clue, because this is the time police believed something happened to Mia, so they focused their search on this area.

And at 10.45 a.m., on Saturday, October 1st, just a week after Mia was last seen, her body was sadly found. While police were searching the wooded area around the timber-scan apartments in Orlando, located about a 25-minute drive from Mia's own apartment, officers came across a body and felt confident that it was Mia. In a news conference that took place this same day, the sheriff announced that they had found what they believed to be Mia's body, and they of course had already informed her family, and that although they felt confident it was her, they didn't know her cause of

death and they were still waiting for the medical examiner to officially confirm that the remains belonged to Mia. 19-year-old Mia Marcono was found with her feet and hands bound with black duct tape, and there was also some covering her mouth. She had the same jeans on that she was last seen in, but she wasn't wearing a shirt, just a bra and a robe. The shirt she was last seen wearing was found inside her purse, which was near her body in the wooded area behind the timber scan apartments. Also in me as purse was her ID, some more of her belonging so it was easily

confirmed to be hers. Sheriff Mina reported that Armando illegally entered Mia's apartment and that they believed he had some plan to confront her. He said, I don't know what that is exactly, did he just plan on confronting her or did he plan this out? We're not really sure, but we're gonna try and find those answers for me as parents. And then he continued with, there's no doubt that he was waiting for her, knowing that she was going to be coming home from work. And so, whether she went willingly or not, I would speculate that she did not go willingly based on everything that we know thus far. I'll say again, Armando Caballero is the person responsible for Mia's death.

He's the only person that's involved in this case. We're not looking for any other suspects. He is the one responsible for Mia's death. Sheriff Mina stated that it could take, quote, some time to receive the man or aunt cause of death as they await toxicology reports, which can take up to four to six weeks or even longer depending. And we're actually recording this episode the day it comes out because we wanted to wait as long as possible to see if those results would come out, but they did not. So as soon as they do, we'll go ahead and announce it in the beginning of an upcoming episode

and on social media, and then we'll edit this episode with the results for anyone who isn't gonna listen anytime too soon. The day Mia's body was found, so Saturday October 1st, 2021, her family and friends gathered outside the Arden Villas for a prayer vigil to mourn the loss of their Mia. Although police did jump on Mia's disappearance quickly, the Sheriff's Department received a lot of backlash after Armando was discovered dead. It was very clear that Mia's family from the get-go thought that Armando was somehow involved and police considered him a potential suspect the day before he was found dead. So there was a huge uproar when he was found, of course, because then he couldn't be questioned

about Mia's whereabouts, especially since his suicide really seemed to point to him having likely murdered Mia. After Mia's body was found, Sheriff John Meena of Orange County, Florida stated, there was no basis for our deputies to detain Caballero. Sadly, detaining Cabalero. Sadly detaining Cavalero would not have changed the fact that he left her body at the timber scan apartments between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Friday night. And people felt like what the sheriff was really saying was, no matter what, Mia was dead anyway. Because it

really seemed that there was enough evidence between the key fob details to the security footage to the consistent and unwarranted text messages from Armando to Mia, yet police just jumped on it a little too late. Mia's family had requested the key fob details and the security footage the very night that Mia went missing, and it took police two days to request them. I do wonder about that, I do wonder why they didn't do that even the day before. Like, I feel like this is a pretty important part of this story to look at security footage and to know who entered her apartment.

That's like a huge thing you think they would have jumped on. And remember, we talked about the fact that if police had just asked the apartment complex, they would have given them the information from the key fob. So that's definitely important here. And by the time the issue to search weren't for a Mando's apartment, he was already dead and her family will never have full answers now,

which really is super unfortunate and I hate that that happened. Yeah, in my personal opinion, I think police jumped on this very quickly. You know, obviously I wasn't there. I don't know the sheriff for the officers that searched for Mia. And I'm really not sure what Mia's family thinks about them personally either, but I watched the news conference after Mia was found. And I thought the sheriff seemed genuine, I think they really did try here.

Of course, hindsight is 2020, and it's easy to kind of sit back and say that they should have done this and this and this. But I do applaud them for jumping on her disappearance instead of saying she's an adult. Yeah, that's the one thing to me that really speaks volumes is that is that they didn't just say, oh, well, maybe she just left her on her own free will, but they were like, no, we're going to treat this as a missing person case right off the bat. It's within hours of her last being seen, which I have rarely seen when we research cases. And they were really out there looking for me alongside her family, and within just one week,

I mean, everything was discovered, which I feel can be rare. Of course, it didn't have a good outcome, so I definitely understand the uproar and I understand why people are upset about this. But what we do know is that the family hired an attorney to help navigate all legal remedies regarding the apartment complex since there was clearly some negligence. I mean Armando should never have had access to a master key when there was no maintenance call like you said earlier, Heath.

And also, you shouldn't even have that key unless you have permission from a tenant to enter, because typically people want to be there when a maintenance person is in their home. So, he just shouldn't have been able to use this key whenever he wanted to. Yeah, I'm not exactly sure if that's, you know's a typical thing that happens with apartment complexes. But in my opinion, I don't understand why a maintenance person would have a master key like that anyway. And I also don't know if it's typical for a maintenance person to have a master key that they can access at any time when there's not a planned maintenance call.

But I don't know that information generally. But I know that even when we were just in Colorado and we were staying at, we stayed at a couple of hotels that didn't have that chain lock. And so I put our suitcases stacked in front of the door after I had heard about this case because it's really scary when you think about it when somebody can have access to your room and you can't put your own lock on that door. It shouldn't be something that we worry about and that's why this case is really important

because this issue is kind of being addressed now. Yeah, and it needs to be. It really, really needs to be. Exactly. And you can imagine how scared the residents at Arden Villas were ever since me disappeared, especially before knowing who was behind it all. Oh yeah, realizing that somebody just has this master key that they could enter your apartment at any time, day or night.

I mean, it's terrifying. Again, we all can have that kind of fear anywhere in a hotel or in our own apartment, but to know that a break in and then a murder happened where you live and that that could have happened to you, they were all really scared. And there was a rally just about a week and a half after her disappearance where residents demanded changes, like more security cameras, better lighting across the property, and no all access master keys for anyone. Residents were propping things against their doors daily before Armando was discovered,

which again, I mean, makes sense in a scary that you have enough to do that, and many residents are still considering suing the owner of, I think it's the priest company, for not preventing this crime from happening in the first place. On top of this, the company has stated that they do background checks on employees and even conducted one on Armando when they hired him back in June. But that nothing came back. Because remember, even though we had talked about this incident that he was, I mean, more than likely involved in withdrawing the weight in that woman's window,

he wasn't convicted for that. So there was nothing on his record, and apparently the Sebal Club apartment complex is thought to be negligent and they didn't report his potential crime to the Arden Villas. And we don't even know if the Arden Villas contacted them, but the information was apparently not shared with the Arden Villas. To me what's really frustrating is that even though they did a background check on Armando, like who's to say that he wasn't going to commit a crime later on? Absolutely.

You know, just because he hasn't committed a crime doesn't mean that he's not going to. And so that's the purpose of no one having this master key. I do wonder what their process was of, you know, calling his references, or if they did anything like that. Because like you're saying, I mean, if you're not convicted of a crime, but you have that in you, how is somebody really going to know that? You can't just tell that by looking at somebody. So it's definitely scary and risky in any situation, but again, like you're saying, he should have, and no one should have access to a master key like that at all times Right, and that's my point even if you did a background check and this person is squeaky clean

Like they still should not have a master key that can enter anybody's apartment It is really sad too because as we know with the first incident with the woman who had rejected him Which she had all the right to do, he clearly does not take rejection well, which is terrifying. And it's just sad that that wasn't, I mean, again, I get that he wasn't convicted. So you can't like put that on his record if he's not officially guilty of it. But it's just so sad that this was in his past and nobody knew. Yeah, the Ardenvilla's definitely should have been notified, but just to clear things up and clarify, because I don't want anybody coming after me, I do understand that the apartment complex

does need a master key, but I'm saying I don't know if the maintenance guy should have that master key at all times. I think it should be specifically for maintenance calls But yes, and I do agree because I think Again, everybody feels more comfortable if you're home when somebody is in your house doing work I know that's not reality for everybody people work You can't always be home when the maintenance guy's there, but he should have just been let into an apartment We can go on and on about this forever. But at the end of the day, this just shouldn't have happened.

Absolutely. And the owner should take responsibility for that. And they actually released the following statement, quote, to ensure nothing like this happens at the Arden Villa's again, we are taking numerous proactive steps to enhance our security protocols. We immediately repositioned a guard to the front gate to document all residents and guests entering and leaving the premises. Additionally, we have upgraded our maintenance procedures to allow for appointment only

bookings. We are in the process of reviewing our entire security apparatus and will make changes or upgrades as warranted. It's sad that all these changes are happening after Mia had to die. I mean, that just shouldn't have happened, but I do appreciate that they are taking advanced steps to add more security. And I think more people need to do that because, you know, it's a scary world we live in and you never know when something's gonna happen No matter where you are. So I think this is great. Yeah, I think advanced security and all aspects of life is a great thing because, you know, like you said You know when I was growing up we didn't have to worry about a lot of school shootings or concert shootings or things like that. Like, we didn't have to really worry about that.

So having that added security, which we just went to Red Rocks, they had that, you know, yeah, check my bag. Pat me down. I don't care. They had the same type of security, you know, it's just like when you go to the airport, I feel like those steps are really important to make sure that everybody in the area, everybody that's going to that concert, seeing that movie, going into that apartment complex is safe. And it is sad that those protocols need to even be put into place, but I'm glad that they were at least taking action after this happened instead of just saying, oh well, it's not our fault. Yeah, exactly. Instead of just doing nothing. Exactly. But of course, I know that Mia's family is still potentially trying to sue the building

for negligence, and I think they have all the rights to do that. Absolutely, yeah, I totally agree. So on Tuesday, October 5th, a medical examiner positively identified the body found on October 1st to be Mia Marconos. And of course, although her family was already confident it was her, they're just absolutely beyond devastated at this news. Her father posted to Instagram the day her body was found with a photo of Mia, and a caption that said,

My heart is shattered. I feel so much pain and anger inside. I know you wouldn't want me to feel this way, but it hurts me knowing I wasn't there when you needed me most. I understand that this is God's plan, and I shouldn't question him, but you baby girl did not deserve this. I can't believe you're gone. I will never get to see that amazing smile again. I would do anything possible right now, just to hear your voice again. I wish I could hold you and tell you that I love you. Hashtag, daddy daughter, hashtag forever in my heart. As we know Mia was very into Carnival and Miami's Carnival was just this past

weekend on Sunday October 10th and there was a huge tribute to her there as her family, friends and community really banded together to huge tribute to her there, as her family, friends, and community really banded together to pay respects to her legacy and just have fun in her honor, since they knew that she would have been there dancing away by their sides in her best costume. There was a moment of silence and then lots of music and partying in the name of Mia. Additionally, Mia's family actually started the Mia Marcono Foundation and their mission is to support, educate, and provide resources to families of missing persons while advocating for the protection of students. Mia's wake and

funeral services will occur on October 13th and 14th of 2021. And there's a memorial fund that's accepting donations for the Mia Marcono Foundation and the link is in the description of this episode and also on Mia MarconoFDN.com. Her family is doing everything they can to seek justice for Mia and to make sure that her death serves a greater purpose and didn't happen in vain. Thank you so much everyone for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and next week we'll have an all-new case for you guys to dive into. This case is just so sad and like I said Heath and I have been following it since she went missing

right after she went missing and we heard about it on social media, we shared her missing poster all over our socials and yes and thank you so much to everybody who had posted her missing poster all over social media as well. Yeah that's why it was just even more crazy to hear the news that her body was found about a week later. Like I said, in the beginning, we had already been planning to cover her as a missing person to kind of put the word out there for her and then to learn that this happened and to learn about Armando.

It's just so sad and I feel so, so much for her family and seeing all of them on social media and they just seem like truly amazing people and I feel so so much for her family and seeing all of them on social media and they just seem like truly amazing people and I feel so so horrible that they're going through this because me and herself as well just seemed absolutely amazing and beautiful and she had her whole life ahead of her. Yes and if you guys want to or you guys can, please donate to Mia's Foundation as well. Yes, again, that's Mia MarcanoFDN, like for foundation, dot com, it's not.org, it's dot com. So thank you so much for everybody

who has listened to this episode. Thank you guys so much. We've gotten a lot of messages that people are, you know, going back and binging all of our other episodes. But we also have bonus episodes. If you're all done, you've listened to all of our episodes. Patreon.com slash going west podcast. And we got a lot of patrons in the last about week and a half.

So thank you guys so much for joining. We're going to give you a shout out right now. We got a big thanks going out to Sarah, Lily, Tracy, Erica, Diana. Thank you, Anna, Carolyn, or Caroline, Kristen, Aselin, and Joe. Thank you so much to Stacey, and Belinger, Lindsay, Pam, Kendall, Valene, Tori, Julie, Bonn. Somebody is NA, so if we're missing your name,

you might not have your name up, so please message us. We'd love to give you a shout out next week. Thank you so much Amanda, Bailey, Cory, and Jubilee. And we got a big thanks going out to Allison, Maria, Aaron, Shannon, thank you Alexis, Billy, Aaron, thank you Megan, Heather, and Mary. Thank you so much to Stella, Krista, Laura, Kate, Charlotte, Haley, think you Michael. I know some people pronounce it different. I don't know if it's Anastasia. I know Anastasia or Anastasia. Thank you so much either.

Thank you Sarah, Tara, Bryant, and Reagan. In a big thanks going out to Katie, Jennifer, wow there's a lot this week, sorry guys, Marisol, Susie, thank you Michael, Laura, Mariah, Allie and Melissa. Thank you so much to Kennedy, La Tomorrow, Lee, Mandy, Haley, Emily, Janna, Courtney, thank you, Catherine, Heidi. I think it's Umay. If it's not, please message me. Umay or Umay?

Yeah, it might be Umay. Thank you, Katie. Thank you, Seth and Tess. And we got a big thanks going out to Kevin, Anna. Thank you, Taylor, Trisha, Kelsey, Sage, Laurel, Taylor, Nicole, Maddie, Genevieve, Charlie, thank you Kendall, Gabriel, Tara, and Monique. And last but not least, thank you so much to Stacey, Tyler, Tanya, Navina, Elizabeth, Aubrey, Nicole, thank you Savannah, Samantha, Jasmine, Delaney,

Alyssa, Whitley, Katherine, thank you Annie, and Tina. Let's see if we can do these last ones together. Oh, we're doing that, all right. Yeah, big things going out to Stevie Morgan, Colleen, Stephanie Jasmine, and Thuggish Normal. Yo, Thuggish Normal. We did it. Thank you guys so much. It means a lot. I know there was a lot to get through. I don't know why we got so many patrons this last week, but we appreciate all you guys who are getting a new episode out to you this week.

We appreciate everybody who shares the show and all of our new listeners, all of our new patrons. You guys are amazing. Also, we've been getting some really, really nice reviews lately. Keep that up because we really like to see those. We love reading nice reviews. Yeah, then the good reviews really help our show move up and get more notice. So it helps more than you guys know. So thank you so much.

And it also means a lot to Heath and I to read them. So we do read them. Thank you, everybody who has nice stuff to say, we love you guys. Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, Cheerio and Don't Be a Stranger!