Police may have found missing woman’s remains
Lynda Meier went missing in June 2010
Lynda Meier was a good deed do-er. Lonely but outgoing. Mentor of a troubled teen. Drawn toward abusive men and into rough parts of town.
She came from a moneyed family, was well provided for, had her rent paid, and drove Jaguars and Escalades. But Meier wanted to help the less fortunate and spent a lot of time in Miami’s rough Overtown section.
And when a violent man blackened her eyes, broke her nose or ripped out her hair extensions, Meier turned toward friends and the courts for shelter and protection, records show.
That was Meier’s life before she went missing in June 2010.
Investigators on Wednesday dug up human remains that they believe are those of the 40-year-old Hallandale Beach woman.
“She was savvy, confident, and unafraid wherever she went. She was not meek,” said Paul Smerechniak, a private investigator hired by Meier’s mother after her daughter disappeared.
Phylis Meier has declined to comment or make a statement until after she knows for certain that the remains unearthed this week in Miami Gardens are those of her daughter, who had a twin brother, Eric.
Lynda Meier’s father, Norman, is now dead. Records show he earned much of his wealth through the pharmaceutical industry.
The medical examiner in Miami-Dade County is working to make an identification.
An affidavit for a warrant “to search for the remains of Lynda Robin Meier in the ‘tree preserve’” at 4310 NW 215th Street in Miami Gardens, made a reference to the dangerous company Meier kept.
It singled out two longtime people of interest in the case: Antwan Kennedy, 35, of Miami, and Dallas King, 36, of Opalocka.
Meier was close with Kennedy. She had mentored him since he was 13, calling him her little brother, buying him school clothes, providing a support system. He later got tangled up in crime.
King, Kennedy’s friend, had been getting in serious trouble since he was 13. His rap sheet includes armed and violent crimes, burglaries, batteries and drugs.
But it was Meier’s onetime live-in boyfriend,
“She was savvy, confident, and unafraid wherever she went. She was not meek.”
Paul Smerechniak, a private investigator hired by Meier’s mother
known as Junior, who had been her abuser, court records show.
Ethingor Warren, a felon now 41, left her wrestling with low self-esteem and thoughts of suicide, Meier wrote in an April 2007 request for a restraining order in Miami-Dade County.
He had a drug problem, broke her nose and held a gun to her, Meier wrote in the court filing.
Warren, of Opa-locka, is not a suspect in Meier's disappearance. He was in prison serving a five-year sentence at the time.
“I definitely sheltered her,” said Sharon Moses-Salano, owner of an Aventura beauty salon and a longtime close confidante of Meier’s. “She showed up with a broken nose, bruises and injuries.”
Meier called Moses-Salano for help from Miami. Meier asked her to come meet her on Collins Avenue. There they found a parking garage to “hide” Meier’s Jaguar in and Moses-Salano took her home.
“She stayed a week,” Mose-Salano said. “I was more than happy to help.”
Although the human remains discovered this week have not yet been identified as Meier’s, she has been legally declared dead.
Court records show that a Broward Circuit Court judge signed a “declaration of death” on Sept. 28, 16. It noted Meier’s date of death as June 4, 2010 — the day she went missing.