When Cid Torrez reported his estranged wife Vilet Torrez missing two days after she disappeared, he told a 911 dispatcher that she hadn’t answered his or his daughter’s phone calls or his text messages, according to audio released Tuesday.
Miramar Police did not identify the 911 caller. Cid Torrez has said that he reported Vilet Torrez missing on Monday, April 2, however.
Authorities suspect foul play and Cid Torrez has been named a person of interest. But he said he did not see or have contact with his wife on the night she disappeared, his lawyer Richard Della Fera said Monday.
Cid Torrez told reporters on April 3 that he last saw his wife that Friday afternoon when he picked up the children for the weekend.
The last glimpse of Vilet Torrez is video of trying to get through the gated entrance of her Harbour Lakes Townhomes community in Miramar in her 2006 silver Toyota Sienna beginning at 5:17 a.m. on Saturday, March 31.
On the 911 call, the dispatcher asked how long she has been missing, and Cid Torrez replied that he doesn’t know.
“Saturday she wasn’t here, alright, and Friday as a matter of fact, yeah, Saturday morning, on Friday night she didn’t come to sleep, and then I don’t know about Saturday, and now it’s Sunday I definitely did it, so …” he said, as the dispatcher asked, “You did what?”
“I mean, um, it was 1 o’clock and she didn’t show up either,” Cid Torrez said.
“OK, so she’s been missing since Friday?” the dispatcher asked, and Torrez said he guesses that is the case.
Della Fera said Tuesday that Cid Torrez's statement "on Sunday I definitely did it" referred to when he called Vilet Torrez's mother, Gladys Blanco, and were not an admission.
"What we are hearing is a distraught man calling 911 to report that his wife did not come home over the weekend. Cid Torrez tried calling and texting his wife, Vilet, numerous times over the weekend. On Sunday evening, April 1, 2012, Cid attempted to reach Vilet several times between 7:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m.," Della Fera said in a statement. "Around 1:00 a.m., he called Vilet’s mother for the first time to explain that he had not heard from Vilet all weekend. This was a call he did not want to have to make."
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Della Fera continued, "In listening to the 911 call, it is clear that Cid was recounting for himself and the officer his efforts to piece together the whereabouts of Vilet for the prior few days and what he had been doing to locate her. His comments were a reflection of his calls on Sunday to Vilet and to her mother and the fact that they were made. As a result, his specific statement 'on Sunday I definitely did it' refers to his calling Vilet’s mother. Any suggestion that this statement is an admission of some sort is utterly preposterous."
During the call he reported Vilet Torrez as 37 years old, though she turned 38 a few weeks beforehand, on March 18.
He said she is Hispanic, about 5 feet 5 inches tall, and weighs about 120 pounds.
Torrez said he went out on Friday.
“We came back at nighttime at midnight, and she never came back,” he said.
“And then I left Saturday. And then Sunday, she didn’t show up yesterday either,” he added.
He said his wife did not answer phone calls, including when his daughter called. They have three children. He also said that her voicemail was full.
At first when Cid Torrez did not describe clearly the status of his wife’s cars. But when the dispatcher asked him about it, he replied that both were at the house.
“Friday night when we came back home, alright, her personal car was not there, and her company car was parked right in the driveway,” he said.
He added a moment later, “Saturday morning, alright, her car was still not there. And then Saturday afternoon we left at 11, her car was there, and her company car was there, so both cars were there.”
Vilet Torrez's sister, Nayiva Blanco, responded skeptically to Cid Torrez's car comments.
“I’m not understanding the story. He says he left at 11 and that's when he saw the car? That Saturday morning the car was still not there? She went in at 5 (a.m.)," she told NBC 6.
Della Fera addressed his client's words about the cars on the 911 call in a separate statement Tuesday evening.
"The fact is Cid Torrez left the house on Saturday morning around 9:00 a.m. with his two youngest children to meet with his brother. At that time, he did not notice Vilet’s car in the parking lot," he said.
Cid Torrez returned to the house soon thereafter, and noticed Vilet Torrez's car when he left a second time, Della Fera said.
"Again, it is clear from the 911 tape that Cid was making his best effort to piece together the chronology of events over the prior few days," he said.
During the call, the dispatcher asked if Vilet Torrez took anything with her.
“Both of her purses are there in the house, but there’s no cell phones and there’s no, like, her personal wallet with all of her information,” he said.
The call ends with the dispatcher saying he is sending someone over to the house.
