A man wanted in the brutal murder earlier this year of a Miami Beach transgender prostitute has been arrested, police said Monday.
Miguel Angel Pavon, 31, was arrested Friday on a first-degree murder charge in the death of Rene Hidalgo Hernandez, according to an arrest warrant released by Miami Beach Police.
According to the warrant, police found the body of Hidalgo covered in sheets and laying in a pool of blood inside her apartment in the 500 block of Michigan Avenue on March 15.
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The body of the 54-year-old had been found by a friend, Javier Menendez Cuesta Daniel, who told police he saw Hidalgo daily.
The friend told detectives Hidalgo was a "transgendered prostitute and had undergone hormone therapy but had not had genital reconstructive surgery," according to the warrant. "Hidalgo would entertain sex partners four to six times a day in exchange for cash, marijuana or for personal enjoyment and would sometimes pick up homeless men for this purpose."
Daniel said he had last seen Hidalgo on March 13, when he looked inside the apartment and saw Hidalgo with an unknown white male who was wearing a light baseball hat and jean shorts, the warrant said.
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On March 14, Daniel returned to Hidalgo's apartment but the doors were locked and nobody answered.
The gruesome discovery was made the next day. Police found Hidalgo's body had been stabbed 23 times in the neck, chest, back and hand. There was evidence of a violent struggle, with blood found throughout the apartment, the warrant said.
When police tested DNA found at the scene it came back to Pavon, whose DNA had been entered into a database during the investigation of a prostitute who had been beaten to death in Miami in June 2011, the warrant said.
Pavon is a prime suspect in that case, but it remains unsolved, the warrant said.
According to the warrant, Daniel had seen Pavon inside Hidalgo's apartment on more than one occasion, but couldn't identify him as the man in the apartment the last time Hidalgo was seen alive.
Pavon was being held without bond Monday. It was unknown whether he has an attorney.
