Apartment residents demand safety changes after teen’s death

ORLANDO — Brenna Boylan said she was frightened recently when a maintenance worker entered her apartment without an announcement or her permission, an invasion of privacy she’s since learned was not an isolated incident.

She said the employee, who she didn’t recognize, didn’t act inappropriately with her or her roommate but she was alarmed by someone walking unexpectedly into her Arden Villas apartment in Orlando, an experience she described as “terrifying.”

“It was very shocking,” Boylan said, a 20-year-old UCF student who moved into the complex in August. “I was very freaked out they were able to enter my apartment without me noticing.”

The UCF-area apartment complex is where 19-year-old Miya Marcano had moved from Pembroke Pines; she lived and worked there before she was found dead on Saturday after a weeklong search.

Boylan is now among a group of residents at the complex who are demanding safety and security improvements in light of the tragedy.

A Change.org petition launched by concerned residents, which calls the apartment complex negligent for allowing safety concerns to persist and “responsible” for Marcano’s disappearance, gained almost 19,000 signatures as of late Monday.

Arden Villas is owned and operated by North Carolina-based student housing company The Preiss Company. A spokesperson for the company did not respond to questions about the petition or its demands.

“For years, residents have reported inappropriate behavior of the maintenance men that enter their apartments,” the petition said. “... Yet they did nothing, and now Miya is missing.”

Marcano’s family first reported the Valencia College student missing Sept. 24 after she didn’t board a flight home to South Florida from Orlando, officials said. During the search, investigators learned a maintenance man at the apartment complex, Armando Caballero, had entered her apartment with a master key minutes before she was last seen alive.

Caballero, who has been named the “prime suspect” in the case, was found dead last week from suicide. His cellphone data led deputies to Marcano’s body Saturday.

Officials have not yet released her cause of death.

“Miya should still be here with us,” said an update to the petition, added after her body was discovered. “This apartment complex is unsafe and has been known to be unsafe since before The Preiss Company acquired the property in 2018. They have had all this time to address our concerns, and they have not lifted a finger. We need to force their hand, so this can never happen again. We need justice for Miya.”

The group of residents said they took their list of demands to the complex’s management on Saturday, asking for improvements including a security officer at the complex’s gated entrance 24/7, improved lighting and surveillance cameras, an overhaul of maintenance practices and the elimination of all master keys.

Daryl K. Washington, the attorney representing Marcano’s family, said he and the family support the residents and their demands. He said he’s spoken with many current and former tenants who have been concerned by operations at the complex and the practices of the maintenance staff.

“Unfortunately, it took the death of a 19-year-old girl to really spark a major movement in that area,” Washington said Monday. “People have been basically paying to live in fear.”

In a statement Sunday, Washington called Marcano’s disappearance and death “100% preventable.” He said the family is focused on grieving and properly honoring Marcano’s life, but he is looking into how Caballero was hired, what background information or references were checked and if the apartment complex was doing everything it could to protect its tenants and employees.

“This person should not have been in possession of that key fob, there was no reason for that person to be in Miya’s apartment,” Washington said. “It’s just totally unacceptable.”

Boylan, who ended up installing a deadbolt on her apartment’s front door after the incident with the maintenance employee, said the group asked the apartment complex to respond to their demands by Friday and are planning to pursue a lawsuit against The Preiss Company if they don’t hear back.

“There’s been no assurance we’ll be safe, … no accountability really,” Boylan said. She said the group wants to honor Marcano and help ensure nothing like this happens again.