Miramar Police released surveillance video on Monday of a missing woman which shows her car entering into her complex before disappearing.
Vilet Torrez was reported missing by her estranged husband, Cid Torrez, on April 2. Authorities suspect foul play and Cid Torrez has been named a person of interest. They have searched canals and bodies of water for weeks, but turned up no clues to her disappearance.
The surveillance video shows her 2006 silver Toyota Sienna entering the Harbour Lakes Townhomes community on March 31 at 5:17 a.m. after she went out with a friend that night, Miramar Police spokeswoman Tania Rues said.
According to the video, Vilet Torrez, 38, attempted to enter through the residents' lane, but she couldn't get in. So, she entered through the visitors' lane instead.
"Her husband has stated that he was at the home, that he spent that evening at the home with the kids. He has said that he did not see her that day," Rues said. "So what we do know is that her vehicle entered the community. She was very close to her home, yet she disappeared shortly thereafter."
Her car was parked at the complex until it was taken out by police.
Vilet Torrez's brother, Javier Blanco, provided cell phone records to NBC 6 which show that his sister made two phone calls to her husband beginning at 5:19 a.m., two minutes after she crossed through the gate.
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"What makes sense to me is exactly what we've been saying all along – that she made it home, and once she was home, she parked her car, and she called Cid. She called Cid twice from her phone to his cellular phone," Blanco said.
Cid Torrez's attorney, Richard Della Fera, thanked Miramar Police for releasing the video and said they hoped it would help solve the mystery of what happened to Vilet Torrez.
Della Fera also thanked police for confirming what his client previously told them – that he did not see or have contact with his wife that night.
"This video proves that Vilet returned to the complex at an hour when Cid and the children were sleeping and there is no indication that she ever went home or even entered the house. Moreover, Cid did not receive any phone calls from Vilet and any assertion that Vilet spoke to him is inaccurate speculation," Della Fera said. "The time, number and length of the calls suggested by the phone records only show that she attempted to contact Cid at a time when he was asleep. If someone saw Vilet within the complex at that hour, they need to contact the Miramar Police Department and shed light on where she may have gone and with whom."
The Florida Department of Children and Families previously handed custody to Vilet Torrez's mother Gladys Blanco and her husband following a confidential call by a family member expressing fear that Cid Torrez could hurt himself or the children.
But the Attorney General’s Office voluntarily dismissed the court case against him a week and a half ago, and the Blanco family transferred custody to Cid Torrez last Tuesday.
Miramar Police are asking anyone with information to contact Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS.
