Missing in Florida

Southern Macabre

Hey, y’all and welcome to Southern Macabre! I’m Aeryn and today is Missing Persons Monday. Since it’s so dang cold in most of the south, I thought we would travel down to the Sunshine State, known for its citrus, Disney World, and the Golden Girls. I’m not going in any particular order with these cases and all of their pictures will be on our Facebook page like last week.

There are a lot of missing people in Florida, about 1,600. Obviously I can’t talk about all of them in one episode, I wish I could. I chose eight cases where foul play is suspected and, at times, proven.

Several of these cases are old, but they still have family waiting for answers. I pray that each of these, and all of the cases I couldn’t cover, are solved.

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Yessenia Ivette Suarez, twenty-eight years old, and her two children, nine-year-old Thalia Ivette and eight-year-old Michael Elijah Otto, were last seen on October 22, 2013. She had gotten into a fight with her husband, Luis Toledo, that day and took the kids to her mom’s.

It’s assumed that her husband, Luis Toledo, murdered Yessenia, Thalia, and Elijah that night. It is known that he murdered the three of them brutally and coerced a neighbor into helping him clean up the crime scene. He attempted to blame the neighbor for the three murders, but that didn’t go anywhere.

He is serving a life sentence for murdering his wife and two step-children, but refuses to tell anyone where he hid their bodies. The four of them lived in Deltona, Florida, about thirty minutes north of Orlando.

He may have sent a letter to a friend stating that he sent Yessenia’s body to Mexico, but didn’t hurt the children. However, he didn’t say where he may have sent them.

If you think you may know something, please call the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. [phone]

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On August 20, 1974, Teresa Armanda Alfonso and Cynthia Gooding were dropped off at the Marathon Movie Theater in Marathon, Florida. They had planned to hitchhike to a party, but neither of them showed up. Teresa was twelve and Cynthia was sixteen.

If you think you may know something, call the Marathon County Sheriff’s Office at [phone]

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Yalitza Garcia was last seen at work on July 2, 2009. She was twenty-four years old and lived in Deerfield Beach, in Southeastern Florida. When she didn’t show up for work on July 5th, her co-workers went to her apartment where her live-in boyfriend told them she wasn’t home. Her co-workers reported her missing on July 7th. Yalitza left all of her belongings in the apartment and her boyfriend used her credit and debit cards after she went missing.

Yalitza was living with her boyfriend, Jason Allen, their young son, and Jason’s mother. Yalitza had just deposited a $20,000 insurance settlement in her bank. Jason admitted to withdrawing $1,400 himself.

When police searched the apartment, they found a large amount of her blood in one room and evidence that someone had attempted to clean it. Her boyfriend was arrested and charged with first degree murder in May 2010. He was convicted of second-degree murder in 2013.

If you think you may know something, you should call Broward County Sheriff’s Office at [phone]

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Susan Basile was only twelve years old when she was abducted by serial killer, Gerald Stano, on June 10, 1975. She had just gotten off her school bus and was walking up a long, deserted road to her house. She usually had a friend with her, but was alone this day.

Gerald claimed, in 1982, that he offered her a ride to the skating rink they both frequented and she climbed into his van. Once inside, he strangled her and dumped her body. Police looked in the area, but it has been built over.

If you think you know where he may have left her, please call the Port Orange Police Department at [phone]

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Harry Lewis Isr