He left his truck at the Keys checkpoint and disappeared. He was just found
A man missing since leaving his truck, cellphone and wallet at the Florida Keys COVID-19 checkpoint nearly two weeks ago was found alive and safe Wednesday morning, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said.
Details about how and where Miguel Angel Garcia, 28, was found are still pending, Adam Linhardt, sheriff’s office spokesman, said.
Earlier this month, Garcia drove his prized Dodge Ram pickup from Key West more than 100 miles north to the checkpoint in Key Largo on the 18 Mile Stretch of U.S. 1.
The afternoon of Thursday, April 17, he parked the truck on the side of the road and walked away with the keys still in the ignition and his cellphone and wallet still inside.
Monroe County deputies staffing the checkpoint, which was put in place at mile marker 112 on March 27 to keep tourists out of the Keys during the novel coronavirus pandemic, had the truck towed because Garcia never came back for it that day.
Early the next morning, police found Garcia sleeping farther up the highway on the Miami-Dade County side and told him he had to move because he was resting too close to traffic.
“He complied and was polite,” a deputy wrote in his report.
Garcia, 28, walked back to where he left his truck but was told by deputies it was towed. After asking what he had to do to get it back, he walked north on the Stretch toward mainland Miami-Dade, which is 15 miles away.
“This was the last known time he was seen by deputies at the checkpoint,” Detective James Hager wrote in his report.
Until Wednesday, no one had reportedly had contact with him since.
The last time any of Garcia’s friends or family had seen or spoken to him was two days earlier. He and his boyfriend, Marcus Espinoza, 30, had just spent all day on a boat with friends. The boat docked at Sugarloaf Key, and Espinoza said he and Garcia began to argue during the nearly 20-mile drive back to Key West in the Dodge.
Espinoza said he, Garcia and their friends were drinking all day on the boat, so he’s not entirely clear what the argument was about.
“I think it was forgotten shoes,” Espinoza said Tuesday.
Whatever they were quarreling over, Garcia was mad enough that he wanted to be alone, Espinoza said. He dropped him off outside of their apartment on South Roosevelt Boulevard and drove off. He never returned.
Garcia did call Espinoza several times and texted him once around 3 a.m. However, Espinoza was sleeping and did not see the missed calls and text message until he woke up hours later. He did not say what the text said.
Detectives nor Garcia’s friends and family know where he went in between the time he left Key West and arrived at the checkpoint. And, Espinoza said he’s surprised Garcia drove so far away because their entire circle of friends is in Key West.
“It’s so boggling,” Espinoza said.
Garcia moved to Key West in January from the San Antonio, Texas, area to live with Espinoza. The two had dated on-and-off for a few years back in Texas before Espinoza moved to the Keys about two years ago.
Garcia’s mother, Nora Villarreal, said her son worked in the oil fields in Texas, but was laid off a few months before he moved to Florida. She said he was working for an automotive body shop in Key West since he moved to the Southernmost City.
Work had dried up at the shop recently because of the COVID-19 crisis, but he was in good standing with his boss. In fact, she said the boat he and Espinoza spent the day on April 16 belonged to his boss’ son.
A lot of the circumstances surrounding her son’s disappearance continue to confuse Villarreal, she said Tuesday. For one, she said she was surprised to learn Garcia walked away from the truck with the keys inside since he loved it so much.
“He was very proud of the accomplishment of getting that truck,” she said from Texas.
She’s even more surprised to hear her son left his phone.
“He was always on his phone,” she said. “He never put it down long enough to let it charge.”
Villarreal said Garcia liked to party and drink beer, but he was not out of control.
“Was he drugged up?” she asked, rhetorically. “I’ve never seen my son all strung out on drugs.”
Espinoza said that while he and Garcia were drinking on the boat, Garcia was “coherent” when he left Key West.
Garcia’s sister filed a missing persons report with the sheriff’s office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement late last week. The sheriff’s office assigned a detective to the case Monday.
The night before he was found, Villarreal was searching for answers.
“I need to see him. His face. That he’s talking and he says, ‘Mom, I’m OK,” she said.
This story was originally published April 28, 2020 at 7:03 PM.
