The massive search for a young South Florida woman who disappeared in Orlando last week intensified Thursday, as authorities said they're "working around the clock" to try to find her.
Authorities were searching through storage and garage areas Thursday at the Arden Villas apartments, where 19-year-old Miya Marcano had disappeared.
Deputies were also seen searching near a lake not far from the complex.
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At a news conference Thursday, Orange County Sheriff John Mina said hundreds of law enforcement officers and civilians have been "working around the clock" to try to find her.
Mina said 60 detectives from his sheriff's office are working on the case, and said they're receiving assistance from the FBI, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and other agencies.
The search involves three counties - Orange, Seminole and Volusia - with specialized K-9s, dive teams searching bodies of water, and helicopters searching by air, Mina said.
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"We are gonna find Miya and we're pouring a lot of resources into this case," Mina said.
Marcano, a Valencia College student, vanished Friday just before she was supposed to fly to Fort Lauderdale to visit her family, authorities said.
The sheriff's office announced Monday that they'd found the body of Armando Caballero, a 27-year-old maintenance worker at the Arden Villas apartments where Marcano lived and worked. He had earlier been named a "person of interest" in the case. Mina described Caballero's death as a suicide.
The sheriff said Monday that Caballero had expressed a romantic interest in Marcano but was "repeatedly rebuffed" by her. Mina also said that Caballero had inappropriately entered Marcano's unit with a master key fob just minutes before she was last seen at the complex.
The sheriff said deputies had talked to Caballero Friday evening, but did not consider him a suspect or person of interest at that time. A warrant had been issued for Caballero’s arrest on a burglary charge before he was found dead on Monday, Mina said.
On Thursday, Mina said investigators believe Caballero is responsible for her disappearance.
"We believe that the suspect that we had named, Armando Caballero, is responsible, we don't know all the circumstances involved in what happened there but he obviously was the prime suspect," Mina said. "At this time, we don't believe there is another person involved."
Family members have assisted law enforcement officers, searching through the woods near the apartment complex where Caballero was found and near the Arden Villas.
