Florida detectives have provided a disturbing update on the Miami mother who was kidnapped in broad daylight before being found dead in her burned car.
Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas, 31, of Homestead, was abducted at a busy intersection shortly before 6 p.m. on April 11.
It was revealed that Aguasvivas called her husband and told him that someone was following her and had hit her car. He told her not to stop and also did not call 911, according to officers.
Hours later, Seminole County Sheriff’s Office detectives found the remains of a body believed to be Aguasvivas’s in a badly charred car and continue to search for suspects.
Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma said at a news conference Monday that an Orange County deputy was arrested for secretly recording and disclosing information about the case to the Aguasvivas family.
Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas, 31, of Homestead, was abducted at a busy intersection shortly before 6 p.m. on April 11.
The video shows a man wearing a fur mask get out of a green Acura behind Aguasvivas’ car and point a gun at him before climbing through the rear driver’s door.
Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma said at a news conference Monday that an Orange County deputy, Francisco Estrella (pictured), was arrested for secretly recording and disclosing information about the case to the Aguasvivas family. .
The deputy, Francisco Estrella, 33, was a childhood friend of Aguasvivas’ husband. Estrella now faces five felony charges.
The police said in a arrest warrant affidavit that Estrella had called one of the investigators posing as Aguasvivas’ cousin and identifying himself as ‘Francisco Archuela’
He said he was concerned about the investigation and the victim’s safety and asked for an update on the case. The investigator told Estrella that he could not share those details since the investigation was ongoing.
When the police inspected Aguasvivas’ husband’s phone, they found WhatsApp messages between him and Estrella.
The messages included a photo of a business card of the investigator Estrella called and a video recording of the conversation between the investigator and Estrella, which the investigator did not know had been taken.
There was also a profile photo of the investigator’s driver’s license, sent by Estrella to Miguel Aguasvivas.
Evidence was also found in the WhatsApp correspondence that Estrella had used her access to police databases to search for the investigator.
Her husband is not a person of interest in the case and is cooperating with the investigation, but detectives believe he knows more than he is letting on.
‘I have described the husband as cooperative; Frankly, I think he knows a lot more than he shares,” Lemma said.
Investigators believe the suspect ordered Aguasvivas to drive to a construction site, where a badly burned vehicle with a body inside was found later that day.
“You don’t have your wife tell you that you’re being hit by a car and you go two hours without calling anyone.”
Lemma said Aguasvivas’ husband turned over his phone for forensic examination.
“We wouldn’t have heard from the Orange County deputy, at least not yet, if he hadn’t done that,” Lemma said, referring to correspondence between Aguasvivas’ husband and the deputy on his phone.
Lemma said the green Acura that hit Aguasvivas during the carjacking was found in a vacant apartment complex in Orange County on Saturday morning.
The same vehicle has been linked to a different case in which a tow truck driver was shot multiple times and killed in Taft, Florida.
On March 19, a driver later identified as Juan Luis Cintrón GarcÃa, 39, towed the Acura from an Orange County apartment complex.
Lemma revealed that some of the rounds of gunfire in the place where GarcÃa was killed coincide with the rounds of gunfire where Aguasvivas was killed.
Investigators believe the 31-year-old woman was attacked and say her husband told her to keep driving when she told him her car was being stolen.
A witness driving behind Aguasvivas on April 11 filmed the terrifying daytime confrontation and then called 911.
The images show a man wearing a balaclava and black hoodie exiting an Acura sedan and approaching the driver’s side of Aguasvivas’ Dodge Durango, pointing a 10mm handgun at her. When Aguasvivas opens the doors, the man climbs into the rear driver’s side door.
Seminole County Sheriff’s Office detectives say the man got into the passenger seat before Aguasvivas resumed driving, while another man followed in the Acura sedan.
At a news conference Saturday, Sheriff Dennis M. Lemma said he was shocked by the images.
“It’s incredibly terrifying to see the audacity of this suspect, this perpetrator getting out of the car, hooded, carrying a gun in broad daylight, getting into the vehicle,” Lemma said.
In a 911 call released by the sheriff’s office, the witness urged: ‘You have to do something now because I don’t know what’s going on.’
Less than two hours after the carjacking, police received reports of gunshots and smoke in Oceola County.
A badly charred vehicle, believed to be Aguasvivas’ Dodge Durango, was found at a construction site.
A dozen 10 millimeter caliber bullet casings and a projectile were also found at the scene.
Aguasvivas had stopped at a red light at the time of the car theft. Police say another man followed her in the Acura sedan as she drove to the construction site.
“There’s no clear indicator as to why anyone would do this,” Lemma said. ‘But we feel and believe… that this was not a random act of violence. The perpetrators knew exactly who they were chasing and why they were chasing them.’
Aguasvivas was a native of the Dominican Republic and was a US citizen. She lived with her husband in Homestead, a suburb of Miami, where they both worked in a barbershop and a beauty salon.
The carjacking occurred just four days before his 32nd birthday.
Investigators believe the gunman forced her to drive to the construction site and that the suspect was familiar with the area.
Lemma added that neither Aguasvivas nor her husband called the police at the time of the incident.
“There are a lot of unknowns, a lot of things that will leave people scratching their heads,” he said.
Aguasvivas’ husband said she was in the area to visit family, although investigators were unable to identify any relatives in Central Florida.
The 31-year-old man came from the Dominican Republic and was a U.S. citizen. She and her husband lived in Homestead and worked in a barbershop and beauty salon.
‘Why didn’t she and her husband call 911? I don’t know. Why did she stop at the red light? “There are many things we will never know, but either way this is a tragic incident,” she stated.
Authorities have not released any further details about the suspects in the case.
Lemma said investigators don’t know where Aguasvivas was headed.
Her husband told police she was in Central Florida to visit family, although investigators were unable to locate any relatives in the area.
The sheriff noted that Aguasvivas’ husband has cooperated with police and has no criminal record in the United States.