Florida law enforcement say they may have found the body of a missing woman on Thursday, just hours after she was kidnapped at gunpoint in broad daylight.
Speaking at a news conference on Friday, Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma said detectives are now investigating the disappearance of Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvias, 31, as a homicide, after remains believed to be hers were found not far from where her kidnapping was filmed.
Guerrero De Aguasvias was driving northbound on her way to see family Thursday evening when she noticed a green Acura following behind her. It began “ramming” into her back bumper, Lemma told reporters.
It was at this moment the victim called her husband to tell him she was being followed, and he advised her, “don’t stop anywhere.”
Video footage captured by a witness and obtained by local TV station WESH’s Stewart Moore shows Guerrero De Aguasvias’ car stuck at a red light, with the green Acura right behind her.
One of the suspects can be seen in the video coming out of the green car to point his gun at her before she unlocks the back door, allowing him into the rear driver side of the car.
According to Lemma, there were at least two suspects in the Acura at the time of the incident, but it’s unclear if there could be more.
Lemma said a body was located inside a burning vehicle parked some 17 miles away. However, the scene was “damaged to the point” where investigators could not immediately confirm that the car and remains belonged to Guerrero De Aguasvias.
In addition to the vehicle and body, Lemma said detectives also found twelve 10mm shell casings at the scene that matched the type of ammunition used in the gun seen in the video.
There is no known motive, Lemma said, but the suspects seemed to know “exactly who they were following,” Lemma told reporters on Friday.
“I suspect that where they told her to go is somewhere where they’ve been before — they seemed very familiar with that area down there. I don’t think this is randomly, ‘Hey, pull off the road,’” Lemma said.
No arrest has been made and authorities are still searching for the suspects.