WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. – Seminole County’s sheriff provided an update Monday after authorities believe they found the body of a 31-year-old Homestead woman who was carjacked and kidnapped in central Florida Thursday.
He said they located one of the vehicles connected with the case and arrested an Orange County deputy who’s accused of illegally accessing and passing on information about the case.
The victim, Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvias, is originally from the Dominican Republic. Authorities said the body was found inside a burning vehicle at a construction site near Boggy Creek Road in Osceola County and they are waiting for tests to come back to determine whether the body is that of Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvias.
“It was a big hit to our family because she always took care of all of us,” her father, who asked not to be identified, told Local 10 News on Monday. “She never had problems with anyone.”
Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma said Monday that investigators have “no idea” why she was in central Florida and believe she was targeted.
Authorities said a witness took cellphone video of the carjacking just before 6 p.m. Thursday at the intersection of East Lake Drive and Tuskawilla Road in Winter Springs.
The video shows an armed man in a black hoodie, wearing what appears to be a Halloween mask, pointing a weapon at Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvias, who was driving a white Dodge Durango.
He then gets into the backseat behind the driver.
The driver of a green Acura sedan with an obscured license plate, which the suspect had initially gotten out of, followed immediately behind the Durango as they all left the area.
At Monday’s news conference, Lemma said the green Acura was also connected to the murder of a tow truck driver in Orange County.
According to Lemma, the Acura was found illegally parked and was towed from an apartment complex near Orlando last month. But the tow truck driver who towed the car was murdered at his home, one day before Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvias was killed.
Authorities said they located the vehicle on Saturday.
Lemma said it was the only 2002 green Acura left in the state of Florida.
Authorities said the Durango had a “for sale” sign on it and a phone number written in plain view on the back window.
Lemma also announced Monday that an Orange County deputy had been arrested.
That deputy, whose wife is a childhood friend of the victim’s husband, is accused of illegally accessing files and the data system, and passing on information to him, providing a fake name to Seminole County investigators while collecting information and improperly using a law enforcement database.
That deputy, Francisco Estrella, is facing multiple felony counts. Lemma said he used the database to look up information about the lead Seminole County investigator on the case, including her home address.
“Here’s where she lives, here’s the detective’s name, here’s a recording of our conversation -- he’s feeding all that information back. Why? We’re going to find out,” Lemma said.
“We don’t know who else he could have shared that information with,” he added.
Police said they were still looking for the vehicle occupants.
They described both suspects as “white or Hispanic” males.
According to Lemma, Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvias called her husband prior to her kidnapping, saying someone was following her and ramming their car into the back of her SUV.
Lemma said the husband told Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvias not to stop the vehicle, but said neither the husband or wife called 911.
He said Monday that her husband is not considered to be a person of interest or suspect at this point.
According to the sheriff, the carjacker appears to have ordered Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvias to drive to the construction site in Osceola County, where people in the area called 911 to report that they heard gunshots and saw smoke.
Authorities arrived to the location and found a burning vehicle with a body inside. Detectives believe the scorched vehicle is the Durango and the body is that of Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvias.
Twelve shell casings and one projectile were also located at the scene, the sheriff said.
Lemma said detectives have been speaking with Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvias’s husband, who said she drove up to Seminole County to visit relatives.
Lemma, however, said they have not been able to find any blood relatives in the area.
According to the sheriff, the victim left South Florida around noon Thursday and had only been in Seminole County for less than an hour before the carjacking.
He said a motive for the killing remains unclear, however detectives believe this was not a random act and that the killers knew exactly who they were following.
While many questions remain unanswered, Lemma said the victim’s husband is cooperating in the investigation and he and Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvias do not have any criminal history in the U.S.
Local 10 News has learned that Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvias worked as a nail tech at the Dominican Beauty Room Salon & Spa in Homestead and her husband works as a barber.