Slain woman’s family sues apartment, claiming negligence
Oct 19, 2021, 3:00 AM | Updated: 3:07 pm
A few hundred people gathered around a median with candles, flowers and posters outside Miya Marcano's apartment during a vigil for the 19-year-old at Arden Villas, Friday, Oct. 1, 2021, in Orlando, Fla. Orange County Sheriff John Mina said Saturday that authorities found Marcano’s body near an apartment building. Marcano vanished on the same day a maintenance man improperly used a master key to enter her apartment. (Chasity Maynard/Orlando Sentinel via AP)
(Chasity Maynard/Orlando Sentinel via AP)
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The family of a Florida college student who detectives say was killed by a handyman at an apartment complex where they both worked and she lived has sued the owners, saying management didn’t properly vet the employee and failed to provide adequate security.
The family of Miya Marcano filed the negligence lawsuit Monday in state court in Orlando against the Arden Villas Apartments and owners The Preiss Company, seeking an unspecified amount of money.
The 19-year-old woman’s body was found on Oct. 2, five days after her suspected killer, Armando Caballero, was found dead of an apparent suicide.
Marcano was a Valencia College student who lived and worked at the Orlando apartment complex where Caballero, 27, was employed as a maintenance worker. Investigators eventually determined that Caballero used a master key to enter Marcano’s apartment.
The woman was hired in June to work in the front office of the apartment complex, the complaint said.
According to the lawsuit, Caballero made unwanted advances to Marcano, who expressed her concerns to a manager at the apartment complex, but the manager “was not taking the safety concerns of the employees and tenants, very seriously.”
Marcano was never told about Caballero’s previous criminal history or other allegations of harassing women, and she didn’t know that he had unsupervised access to her apartment with a master key, the lawsuit said.
Neither Arden Villas nor The Preiss Company immediately responded to a request for comment, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
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