Missing Woman: Vilet Patricia Torrez--FL--03/29/2012

[LoriDavis]

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/04/04/family-of-missing-miramar-mother-looking-for-answers/

Family Of Missing Miramar Mother Looking For Answers

April 4, 2012 7:28 PM


Vilet Patricia Torrez (Source: Miramar Police)

MIRAMAR (CBS4) – It’s been five days since the family of Vilet Torrez has heard from her and now Torrez’s family is beside themselves with fear.

Torrez lived Miramar and left behind her children, her family, and all of her friends.

“If your sister, your brother, your close relative vanishes into thin air, you’re distraught,” said Javier Blanco, Torrez’s brother. “You want to know what’s happening.”

During a Wednesday press conference with Miramar Police, new pictures of Torrez were released showing the mother with a big smile on her face. Her family said that how she always is at home.

“She was always happy, never angry, even when things should have angered her,” Blanco said, on the verge of tears. “She was always happy; she was always positive; optomistic about everything, about life, that’s how she succeeded.”

Investigators told CBS4 they’re checking to see if her credit cards have been used. The last time anyone saw her was Friday, when she had dinner with a friend. Now, cops are following every lead and scrape of information they receive.

“We’re just following anything that we can find out from family, friends, surveillance, from the phones, anything and everything,” said Miramar Detective Jonathon Zeller.

If you have any information, call Miramar Police at 954-602-4000 or Broward Crimestoppers at (954)-493-TIPS.

[LoriDavis]

http://www.local10.com/news/Search-continues-for-missing-woman/-/1717324/10216200/-/dvsmqcz/-/

Search continues for missing woman
Miramar woman last seen Friday

Author: Roger Lohse, Local 10 Reporter
Published On: Apr 04 2012 05:58:02 PM EDT  Updated On: Apr 04 2012 07:27:46 PM EDT

MIRAMAR, Fla. - The search continued Wednesday for a Miramar woman who has not been seen since Friday.

Family members are doing their best to stay positive, but it gets harder with each day that they don't hear from missing Miramar mother Vilet Torrez.

"If your sister, brother, close relative, suddenly vanishes into thin air, of course you're distraught. You don't know what's happening," said Torrez's brother, Javier Blanco.

Blanco called his sister a beautiful human being, a hard-working, religious woman and, mostly, a devoted mother. In fact, that's why no one believes Torrez would leave on her own without making an effort to contact her three children, whom she left with her estranged husband for the weekend.

"We've called her and called her (and) called her. We've left messages, and nothing," Torrez's husband, Cid, told Local 10's Roger Lohse on Tuesday.

He said his wife was supposed to come home Sunday night. He reported her missing Monday.

"He's been very cooperative. Every time we've wanted to speak to him, he's made himself available," said Miramar police Detective Jonathan Zeller.

Vilet Torrez works for a bath remodeling company. Police said she went to dinner with a co-worker Friday night. Her car was found in the parking lot of her condo complex on Saturday, but she didn't show up for any of her weekend appointments. 

Family members didn't want to theorize where she is or what may have happened to her. They said Vilet Torrez would want them to remain hopeful that she'll be found safe.

"She was always happy, always positive, always optimistic about everything, about her life, and that's how she succeeded," Blanco said.

Police have checked cellphone and credit card records and reviewed surveillance video from the gated community in which Vilet Torrez lives, but they won't say what, if anything, those searches have revealed. 

Anyone with information is asked to call the Miramar Police Department at 954-602-4000.

[LoriDavis]

http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/notitas-de-noticias/details/search-continues-for-missing-florida-mother-vilet-torrez-38/15080/

Search Continues for Missing Florida Mother, Vilet Torrez, 38
Published at 1:17 pm EST, April 9, 2012

A friend of missing Miramar, Florida woman Vilet Torrez says she fears the worst because the mother of three would never have left her children.

The 38-year-old mother went missing on March 30 after having dinner with a friend. She was last seen at around 11 p.m. that night. Family and friends realized something was wrong after discovering she had not shown up to work all weekend or Monday.

Her friend Clarissa Garcia recently told NBCMiami, ‘ Each minute and each hour and each day goes by you, you hold on to some hope, but we see these stories all the time and your hope becomes less and less that she might be with us, and I’m thinking this is probably a tragic outcome.’

Police have reportedly spoken with Torrez’s estranged husband Cid. Though he admits they had a less than perfect relationship, Cid told police that “when it comes to the kids – she’s great mother.” Adding, “My kids need their mother.”

Despite his claims that he is fine and fit to take care of his children while the search for his estranged wife continues, the children were taken from his custody.

On Thursday night, a member of Vilet’s family called the Florida Abuse Hotline after Cid allegedly threatened to get a gun to “end it all.”

The children, Vilet, 12, Cid Jr., 7, and Marcus, 4, are now with Vilet’s mother and the search for her continues.

Vilet Patricia Torrez is 5’3, weighs between 125 and 130 pounds, has black hair and brown eyes.

[LoriDavis]

http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/21007213588417/search-continues-for-missing-miramar-mother/

Search continues for missing Miramar mother

Posted: 04/14/2012 at 5:40 pm EDT

MIRAMAR, Fla. (WSVN) -- Police and loved ones stepped up the search for a missing South Florida woman.

On Saturday, family members and friends passed out flyers in Miramar, Saturday, hoping to locate 38-year-old Vilet Torrez.

Torrez, a mother of three, has been missing for two weeks.

The woman's husband has been named a person of interest in her disappearance. He has since lost custody of their children.

If you have any information that can help authorities, call Miramar Police at 954-602-4000.

[LoriDavis]

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/04/18/missing-miramar-womans-family-reacts-to-husband-named-person-of-interest/

Missing Miramar Woman’s Family Reacts To Husband Named Person Of Interest

April 18, 2012 10:54 PM

MIRAMAR (CBS4) – The family of a missing Miramar mother says they are not surprised the woman’s estranged husband has been named as a ‘person of interest’ in her disappearance.

Vilet Torrez, 38, vanished on March 30th shortly after arriving at her Miramar home, according to police.

Her husband Cid Torrez has been named a person of interest.  CBS4 News broke the story Tuesday that Miramar police obtained search warrants and took DNA samples, hair samples and fingerprints from Cid Torrez on April 11th.

However Miramar police says others have also submitted DNA samples.

“We do suspect foul play in the disappearance of Vilet Torrez,” said Tania Rues, a spokeswoman for the Miramar Police Department.

Cid Torrez has denied he has anything to do with his estranged wife’s disappearance.

“I’m counting the hours until she comes home,” Torrez told CBS 4 News on Tuesday.

But Vilet Torrez’s family says they don’t believe him.

“She was getting ready to divorce him. She was moving on with her life.   She had changed the beneficiaries on her insurance policies,” said Vilet’s brother Javier Blanco. “They had problems in their marriage and we feared for her life,”

Over her family’s objections Cid Torrez is now living in the house he once shared with his estranged wife, even though he hasn’t lived there for months.

His relatives continue to believe he had nothing to do with his estranged wife’s disappearance.

[LoriDavis]

http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/04/24/vigil-held-for-missing-miramar-mother/

Vigil Held For Missing Miramar Mother

April 24, 2012 11:55 PM
Reporting Carey Codd

HIALEAH (CBS4) – Holding candles and carrying heavy hearts those closest to Vilet Torrez held a vigil for the beloved mother of three young children at her Hialeah church Tuesday night.

Vilet disappeared from her Miramar home in late March and hasn’t been seen since.

There were hugs and tears Tuesday — many belonging to Vilet’s sister Najiva.

“I just hope that wherever she is that she can feel this love we have for her,” Najiva said.

CBS 4 News was first to tell you last week that Miramar Police believe foul play was likely involved in her disappearance.

Police are also calling Vilet’s husband Cid a person of interest in the case. Search warrants first obtained by CBS 4 News last week revealed that police took DNA and hair samples from Cid Torrez in the days after his wife’s disappearance. Police are not revealing the results of any testing of evidence that has been done in the case.


Vilet’s family says the couple had a stormy relationship and Vilet planned to divorce Cid. Last week Cid Torrez told CBS 4′s Carey Codd that he doesn’t know where Vilet is.

CBS 4′s Carey Codd asked Cid Torrez, “Did you have anything to do with her disappearance?” He replied, “Nothing at all.”

Cid Torrez did not attend Tuesday’s vigil.

Vilet’s family is holding on to faint hope she might be alive. Those grieving her say she never would leave her children. Vilet’s brother Javier says the family can only trust that police will solve this case.

“I have to have faith in the detectives that they’ll find whoever did this to her,” he said. “Whatever happened to her.”

Vilet’s children are living with their grandparents. Her sister says the most painful part of this ordeal is fearing the kids will never again see their mother.

“How can you hurt those children?” she said. “They need her. I just want her children to be happy. They need their momma.”

Vilet’s family is begging anyone with information about Vilet’s disappearance to call Broward Crime Stoppers at (954) 493- TIPS.

[LoriDavis]

http://www.local10.com/news/Missing-woman-s-friend-We-pray-for-a-miracle/-/1717324/12408462/-/yyhtv3z/-/

Missing woman's friend: We pray for a miracle
Police search Miramar waterways for Vilet Torrez

Published On: May 01 2012 05:51:39 PM EDT  Updated On: May 01 2012 07:01:56 PM EDT

MIRAMAR, Fla. - As crime scene investigators and dive crews scoured a Miramar lake Tuesday for evidence in the disappearance of Vilet Torrez, her brother, sister-in-law and friend stopped to observe the search.

The lake near Interstate 75 and Miramar Parkway was the fourth waterway Miramar police officers and members of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue multiagency Urban Search and Rescue South Florida Task Force has searched in the past two days.

The officers were using K-9s specially trained to detect buried or submerged human remains as they continued to investigate disappearance of Torrez, 38, who has not been seen since March 30.

Torrez's brother, Javier Blanco, her sister-in-law, Julie Spurlock Blanco, and her friend, Clarissa Garcia, spotted the police activity and realized what was going on.

"We just so happened to be driving by and we saw the cops doing their search," Blanco said. "It's an unsettling feeling, but I'm really happy that they're searching, that it's out there, that the story's still out there, that my sister hasn't been forgotten."

"As sad as this is to see, they're looking, and although we pray for a miracle, we're just hoping that we find something," Garcia said.

"The slim chances of finding her and finding her alive and well, I don't think it's not possible. If people win the lottery, I mean, I think miracles do happen, you know?" Blanco said.

Torrez's loved ones are refusing to give up hope.

"More than anything, I don't want to know, but I desperately need to know," said Spurlock Blanco. "We need to pay her the respects that she deserves and continue to also pray for a miracle that we will see her again and she'll be able to tell us what happened."

Police said they plan to continue to conduct these searches in the coming days.

[LoriDavis]

http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/21007360366519/police-continue-to-search-lake-area-for-missing-woman/#ixzz1tfKb84fz

Police continue to search lake area for missing woman

Posted: 05/01/2012 at 5:25 pm EDT

MIRAMAR, Fla. (WSVN) -- Authorities continue their intense search of a Miramar lake in connection with a South Florida high-profile missing woman.

Officers and K-9s scoured in and around a lake along Miramar Parkway and Monarch Lakes Boulevard, Tuesday, in a search for leads in the disappearance of Vilet Torrez.

Torrez, a mother of three, has been missing for a month.

Investigators have ruled foul play in her disappearance.

Cid Torrez, the woman's estranged husband, has been named a person of interest in the case.

If you have any information on her whereabouts, call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a reward.

[LoriDavis]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/fl-missing-miramar-mom-search-20120501,0,3835671.story

Miramar police search waterways in missing woman case
 
By Juan Ortega, Sun Sentinel
6:03 p.m. EDT, May 1, 2012

MIRAMAR— Authorities are scouring South Florida waterways in search of Vilet Torrez, a mother of three who vanished a month ago, according to the woman's brother.

"We're really happy with the searches that are going on," Torrez's brother, Javier Blanco, 32, said Tuesday afternoon. "It shows that this is not a cold case, and the Miramar Police Department is doing a fantastic job."

Blanco continued: "Whatever state they find Vilet in is a positive for us. We just want to make sure whoever did this is put behind bars as soon as possible."

Vilet Patricia Torrez, 38, was last seen at her Harbour Lakes townhome the afternoon of March 30.

Enter to win a pair of diamond earrings for Mother's Day

She was reported missing three days later by her husband, Cid Torrez, who police have called a "person of interest" in the case but who has not been charged with any crime. The husband's lawyer has said that as far as he and his client knew, there has been no evidence to suggest foul play was involved.

The couple's children, ages 5, 7 and 12, have been living with maternal relatives inMiami-Dade County.

On Tuesday, members of a multi-agency search task force were searching several lakes, including in the area of Monarch Lakes Boulevard and Miramar Parkway, according to Miramar police spokeswoman Tania Rues.

Rues declined to say whether the search was related to Vilet Torrez, only to say it was part "of an ongoing investigation." She said officers expected to conduct additional searches of local waterways.

Javier Blanco and Vilet Torrez's friend, Clarissa Garcia, 45, of Miramar, were among those who visited the search site Tuesday.

Blanco said "it was clear to us" that the search was related to his sister's disappearance, based on the proximity of the lake to his sister's home. At the lake, he also saw officials from Miramar police "who I recognized" as being on the case.

Cadaver dogs were reportedly being used to assist in the search.

Garcia said police confirmed to her that they were looking for her friend.

"There is the hope that she is still alive," Garcia said. "We always have that hope and, as the days go by, it's a little less than it was. But we are realistic that we may end up finding remains. We're all becoming prepared if and when that moment does arrive."

She said she was pleased to see that police still were aggressively investigating her friend's disappearance.

[Shannon]

http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/21007548823015/police-search-lake-for-missing-woman/

Police search lake for missing woman

MIRAMAR, Fla. (WSVN) -- The continuing search for a missing South Florida mother lead divers to comb through a lake behind her home.

Vilet Torrez, 38, was last seen on March 30, and her family and authorities have been searching for her ever since.

On Wednesday, police divers descended on the lake directly behind the home she shared with her three children in search of the missing mother. "I've known them for many years, we moved in here together," said neighbor Ernest Rodriguez. "Happy family, so now all of this is just stunning."

Torrez' family believes she was murdered and calls her estranged husband, Cid Torrez, a murderer. "I think so," said Javier Blanco, Vilet's brother. "I think he killed her. I think he choked her."

Miramar Police have not charged Cid with the murder of Torrez, but they have named him a person of interest. Cid's attorney protests his innocence. "Mr. Torrez, my client, is still looking for Ms. Torrez," said Richard Della Ferra, "and we're hopeful we're going to find her."

Neighbors who knew the couple are in disbelief that Cid could have had anything to do with Vilet's disappearance as their neighborhood is combed over for any sign of her. "I've known him and I've known her, and I've never seen any violence or anything. Very nice people, and like I said, it's shocking to me when I'm seeing all of this," said Rodriguez.

Still, investigators had to obtain a search warrant to force Cid to cooperate with the case. Without it, Cid would not give a DNA sample.

Cid has also been totally absent from new conferences and has yet to distribute a single missing persons flyer to help find his wife.

Torrez' distraught family released a video in hopes that someone who may know something will go to the police: "On March, 30 2012, my sister Vilet Torrez was last seen in Miramar, Florida. A caring mother...A lovable daughter..."

Torrez has three children who are now in the care of family members. Cid is in the process of fighting for custody.

If you have any information on the disappearance of this mother, you are urged to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.

Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a reward.

[Shannon]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-vilet-torrez-status-20120528,0,6405434.story

Dispute over missing Miramar woman's children goes through weekend

By Linda Trischitta
 
8:29 p.m. EDT, May 27, 2012

MIRAMAR— On Wednesday, it will be two months since Vilet Torrez disappeared. A week after the Miramar mother of three vanished, her estranged husband Cid Torrez temporarily lost custody of the children, and he has sought their return ever since.

On April 6, a judge ordered that the Torrez children — Vilet, 13, Cid, 8, and Marcus, 5 — live with their maternal grandmother after the Department of Children & Families reported an allegation that Torrez said he was going to get a gun and end it all because of the stress of his wife's disappearance, according to testimony.

Late Friday, the Florida Attorney General's Office dismissed its custody case.

But the family on Saturday declined the DCF's request to return the children to their father, Vilet Torrez's sister Nayiva Blanco said.

The family wants a court order before they comply, she said Sunday.

Cid Torrez's lawyer Richard Della Fera said Sunday that the Blanco family was acting "in defiance of lawful process. But if I have to get a court order to return the children to their father, I will."

Meanwhile, Miramar police continue to search canals and lakes and won't confirm that their efforts — including a yellow Labrador golden retriever mix named Jewel that specializes in finding human remains — are solely for Vilet Torrez.

"Cid Torrez is still a person of interest in the disappearance of his estranged wife," Miramar police spokeswoman Tania Rues said. "He has not been charged with anything and is not officially a suspect."

The Blancos have sought the public's help to find Vilet Torrez by handing out fliers at shopping centers and by using Facebook and Twitter and creating a YouTube video.

"I want everybody in the whole entire world to know what happened to her and to touch people's hearts," Blanco said. "It's impossible for me to think that no one saw anything. And if she's alive, we want her to know that we will find her."

[LoriDavis]

http://www.local10.com/news/Police-Video-shows-missing-woman-made-it-to-community/-/1717324/14478472/-/gsawriz/-/index.html

Police: Video shows missing woman made it to community
Woman missing since March 31

Author: Roger Lohse, Local 10 Reporter
Published On: Jun 04 2012 02:48:00 PM EDT  Updated On: Jun 04 2012 08:32:23 PM EDT

MIRAMAR, Fla. -Police have released new evidence showing what are believed to be the last images of Vilet Torrez before she disappeared more than two months ago.

What happened to her in the minutes after she was captured on the surveillance video is a mystery that detectives and her three children want solved.

Surveillance video from the town home complex where Torrez lives with her three children show the 38-year-old mother of three arriving home at 5:16 a.m. Saturday, March 31, after a night out with a male co-worker in Miami.

Her key card into the gated complex didn't work, so she backed up her silver Toyota Sienna and pulled into to the visitors' entrance, where she punched a special code to get in.

Detectives said the video proves Torrez made it home that night where her estranged husband, Cid Torrez, was staying with their three kids.

"We see her coming in to the complex, but do detectives believe she actually made it into the house?" Local 10's Roger Lohse asked Miramar police spokeswoman Tania Rues.

"That is the big question," Rues replied.

Miramar police have named Cid Torrez a person of interest in his wife's disappearance, though they're tight-lipped as to why. But, Local 10 has learned it is, in part, because he was the last person she called minutes after arriving home that night. Vilet Torrez's phone records, obtained by Local 10, show she called her husband twice at 5:19 a.m., two one-minute calls. Detectives believe a security latch on the front door was locked and Vilet Torrez needed someone on the inside to open it so she could get in.

"She made it home," said Vilet Torrez's brother, Javier Blanco. "She called him because she couldn't get into her house. I think she called her murderer that night."

Blanco believes his sister died at the hands of her jealous, estranged husband.

Cid Torrez is not charged with any crime. Police won't comment on whether they believe he answered his wife's phone calls that morning but acknowledged the phone records are a crucial piece of evidence in the case.

"For the record, these are not phone calls or records that we have released, but since you have them, we will say that we believe that she (got) into the community and for whatever reason may have had trouble getting into her town home, and possibly that is why she made those phone calls to her husband, who has admitted to having spent that night there with the kids," Rues said.

Lohse spoke to Cid Torrez's attorney, Richard Della Fera, who told him the last time his client heard from his wife was Friday night, when she left their children with him for the weekend. He also said he has no record of Vilet Torrez calling his phone that morning.

Anyone with information is asked to call Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS (8477).

[LoriDavis]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/vilet-torrez-911-call-reporting-missing-florida-moms/story?id=16501076#.T8_1yrBYuSM

Vilet Torrez: 911 Call From Missing Florida Mom's Estranged Husband Released

By ALYSSA NEWCOMB
June 5, 2012

The estranged husband of a missing Florida mom told a 911 dispatcher that he "definitely did it" before changing course in an April 2 call to report his wife's disappearance.

Under Florida law, police could not release the identity of the caller, but Cid Torrez, the estranged husband of Vilet Torrez, 38, has previously told ABC News he was the person who reported her missing Monday, April 2.

The recording was released by the Miramar Police Department today.

"I don't know. Saturday, she wasn't here, all right? And, Friday, [unintelligible] Saturday morning or Friday night, she didn't come to sleep, and then I don't know about Saturday, and now Sunday, I definitely did it, so ..." the caller said.

"You did what?" the dispatcher asked.

"I mean, um, it was 1 o'clock and she didn't show up either," the male voice said.

"OK, so she's been missing since Friday?" the dispatcher asked.

The caller said he guesses that is the case.

Police have called Cid Torrez a person of interest but have reiterated Cid Torrez is not a suspect and has cooperated.

Richard Della Fera, Torrez' attorney said the statement that he "definitely did it" was made during a time when his client was distraught and trying to recount the calls he made to Vilet and her mother that led to the 911 call.

"Around 1 a.m., he called Vilet's mother for the first time to explain that he had not heard from Vilet all weekend. This was a call he did not want to have to make," Della Fera said in a statement issued to ABC News' Miami affiliate. "In listening to the 911 call, it is clear that Cid was recounting for himself and the officer his efforts to piece together the whereabouts of Vilet for the prior few days and what he had been doing to locate her."

Tania Rues, spokeswoman for the Miramar Police Department, declined to discuss what the caller could have meant.

"I can't speculate as to what the male caller was intending to say. I think the 911 call speaks for itself," she told ABCNews.com.

On Monday, Florida police released a surveillance video from March 31 at 5:17 a.m. that showed the missing mom made it inside her gated community.

What remains unclear, however, are the crucial few minutes after Vilet Torrez was seen on the tape.

Phone records obtained by ABC News' Miami affiliate show Torrez called her estranged husband, Cid Torrez, twice at 5:19 a.m on March 31. Torrez was reported missing on April 2.

Detectives told the station they believed Torrez needed someone inside the house to unlock a security latch so she could enter.

The missing woman's brother, Javier Blanco, described Cid Torrez as "jealous" and said he hadn't slept over at the family home in months.

"The one day he decides to sleep over, I can assure you it was a surprise to her, she was missing," Blanco told ABCNews.com.

The missing mom had recently separated from Torrez, her husband of 15 years, Blanco said.

Blanco said his brother-in-law was jealous and controlling,to the extent they worried about their sister's safety.

"We had been fearing for her life for about a year already," Blanco said. "Her family had been warning her, friends, marriage counselors. We were all urging her to get out, and she was [finally] transitioning her life."

Police executed search warrants on Vilet Torrez' home and car, as well as her estranged husband's vehicle. Cid Torrez has also provided police with hair and saliva samples.

No suspects have been named.

[LoriDavis]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/vilet-torrez-missing-mom-featured-florida-billboards/story?id=16985649#.UCem-aFlTIY

Vilet Torrez: Family of Missing Florida Mom Hopes Billboards Bring 'Truth' and 'Justice'

By ALYSSA NEWCOMB
Aug. 11, 2012

After Miramar, Fla., police came up empty in searches of a missing woman's home and vehicles and numerous dives in local bodies of water, the family of Vilet Torrez is hoping two new billboards will help solve the four-month-old mystery of what happened to the mother of three.

A surveillance video released by police that was recorded at 5:17 a.m., March 31, showed the missing mom inside her gated community, but what remains unclear is what happened in the crucial few minutes after Torrez was seen on the tape -- that last time she was seen.

Torrez, 38, was not reported missing until April 2. Her estranged husband, Cid Torrez, who had moved out of the family home but was staying there the weekend she disappeared, has said he assumed she was staying.

The couple had recently separated after 15 years of marriage.

Julie Spurlock-Blanco, Torrez' sister-in-law, said she hoped the billboards would lead to "truth and justice" for Torrez and her family.

"There are such mixed emotions each time I pass Vilet's billboard, which is only blocks from where I work," Spurlock-Blanco said. "My first instinct is happiness to see Vilet's face, but that happiness is quickly shadowed by the harsh reality of why her face is on a billboard."

Police have executed search warrants on Vilet Torrez' home and car, as well as on her estranged husband's vehicle. Cid Torrez has also provided police with hair and saliva samples.

No suspects have been named, but the missing woman's brother, Javier Blanco said he found Cid Torrez' behavior suspicious.

"The one day he decides to sleep over, I can assure you it was a surprise to her, she was missing," Blanco said.

Blanco said his brother-in-law was jealous and controlling, to the extent they worried about their sister's safety.

"We had been fearing for her life for about a year already," Blanco said. "Her family had been warning her, friends, marriage counselors. We were all urging her to get out, and she was [finally] transitioning her life."

[LoriDavis]

http://www.local10.com/news/Missing-woman-s-estranged-husband-charged-with-murder/-/1717324/17518642/-/117n2hfz/-/index.html

Missing woman's estranged husband charged with murder
Cid Torrez had been considered a person of interest, police say

Published On: Nov 21 2012 09:15:40 PM EST  Updated On: Nov 22 2012 07:13:06 AM EST

MIRAMAR, Fla. - The husband of Vilet Torrez, the mother of three who has been missing since late March, has been charged with first degree murder, Miramar police said.

Cid Torrez was arrested Wednesday night about 8 p.m. at his family's home in Miami Lakes.

Vilet Torrez's sister Nayiva Blanco said she and her family were in disbelief over the arrest.

"Never expected it to happen the day before Thanksgiving. We have been thinking about (her) today a lot. A lot. My mother has been crying since this morning, knowing that it was going to be our first Thanksgiving without her," said Blanco.

Authorities held a press conference Wednesday night, but revealed few details about the "meticulous" investigation they've conducted in the nearly eight months leading up to the arrest.

"I don't think that there was one piece of evidence that really put him behind bars. It was a variety of things. When you put them altogether, it was like a puzzle," said officer Tania Rues.

Cid Torrez had been considered a person of interest in the investigation of his estranged wife's disappearance, authorities said. He reported Vilet Torrez missing nearly two days after the last known video of her was recorded Saturday, March 31st, according to authorities. In the 911 call, he claimed he never heard from nor saw his wife, police said. However, phone records obtained by Local 10 show Vilet Torrez called her husband twice at 5:19 a.m.

Blanco said her family will press for justice to be served for her sister and her children.

"It's been extremely hard for our family, for my mother, for everyone," said Blanco. "And we're very happy that we're one step closer to finding out what happened to her because it's not over until we know the truth, until we find her and we're able to tell her children where their mother is."

As news of the arrest spread across South Florida Wednesday night, messages of support for the missing mother's family filled a Facebook page dedicated to her.