A man calling himself Antonio phoned an emergency operator from a Miami payphone to report witnessing the murder. He directed police to a sugarcane field near Belle Glade, noting the body was located behind a building shaped like a giant ice cream cone.
A witness saw two men arrive in a blue Ford Bronco and attack her with a machete. The witness noted that one man sounded Cuban, the other spoke with a Mexican cadence, and the victim called one of them "Ricardito."
The witness overheard a heated argument between the men and the victim over drugs and unpaid money. She pleaded for her life and insisted she did not have the cash they were demanding before they attacked her.
Police brought in a local man for questioning after he reportedly boasted about murdering a Black woman in the area. He immediately requested an attorney and was released because detectives lacked physical evidence or a cooperating eyewitness.
The witness vanished after making the initial anonymous phone call and never came forward again. Without his formal testimony, prosecutors lacked the foundation needed to secure an indictment.