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The police launched a homicide investigation after a woman from 75 years was found dead in a Miami Beach hotel that caters to flight crews and the door to her room was blocked by a mattress.
The victim, identified by relatives as Marelbi Ruiz Lara, was found on Tuesday by overnight at the oceanfront Sherry Frontenac hotel on Collins Avenue, WPLG reported.
“MBPD received a call from a woman requesting a welfare check for her co-worker, who was last seen on Saturday, December 3,” he said. police spokesman Ernesto Rodríguez told the outlet via email Wednesday.
Rodríguez told the Miami Herald that the death is being investigated as a homicide and that “detectives are actively pursuing various leads.”
Lara’s son, Nelson Tabares, told NBC Miami from Colombia that his mother worked in the area and had stayed at the hotel with her partner.
The door to Lara’s room at the oceanfront Sherry Frontenac Hotel was blocked by a mattress.
She said she got worried later of not hearing from her for several days and called the hotel to ask the staff to check her in the room on the tenth floor.
When the security staff tried to open the door, they found it blocked by a mattress.
“They used blunt force to get in,” Tabares told the station. “The hotel workers, after using force… did not find belongings of the two people who lived there. They got scared. They were nervous”.
Lara was staying at the hotel with her boyfriend, who was working on a building remodel, WPLG reported.
Authorities have not released any information on a suspect, but
Tabares believes the man killed her and then took his own life in Sarasota, NBC said.
The police have not confirmed a link between the homicide and a reported suicide on the side of the I-80 on Tuesday in Sarasota, according to the report.
The female’s body was removed by the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office around : 30 am on Wednesday and the cause of death remains under investigation.
A receptionist told WPLG that the hotel is not open to the public In general l, but is used exclusively by airline pilots and flight attendants.
Lara’s body was discovered after a co-worker asked the police to carry out a welfare check.
The station said it learned that Lara was not an employee of any airline.
Authorities said there was no threat to the general public, but area residents and tourists expressed alarm at the incident.
“I think it’s a terrible thing, right here in the middle of the beach to have this kind of situation,” Alicia Darias told NBC Miami.
Desiree Arnold of Jacksonville said he saw a heavy police presence Tuesday night.
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“We are here on vacation. We’re like four hotels away, so now I’m like, ‘Are we safe?’” she told WPLG.