The family of a woman found slain in a Miami Beach hotel room is desperately seeking answers as police continue their investigation.
Nelson Tabares, who lives in Colombia, told NBC 6 his mother, Marelbi Ruiz Lara, worked in the area and lived in the hotel room at the Sherry Fronternac Hotel with her partner.
Miami Beach Police were called to the hotel, located at 6565 Collins Avenue, just before 7 p.m. Tuesday after a woman called and asked for a welfare check for her co-worker after not hearing from her for four days.
"They used blunt force to go in," Tabares said in Spanish. "The workers of the hotel, after using force ... they didn't find belongings of the two people living there. They got scared. They were nervous."
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Officers arrived and found the woman's body in the room. Police have not released the victim's identity, but family members identified her as Ruiz Lara, a mother of two.
Police have not confirmed information on a suspect, but Tabares believes Lara's partner killed her, before he killed himself on the side of a road in Sarasota. Officials have not confirmed this, but the events coincide with a report of a suicide Tuesday on Interstate 75 in the same city.
Miami Beach Police are investigating the hotel incident as a homicide and are following several leads, officials said.
