A suspect sought for questioning in the murder of an 18-year-old woman whose body was dumped at a construction site was questioned and released early Wednesday, hours after he fled from detectives sparking a manhunt in Southwest Miami-Dade.
With K-9 units trailing him, the suspect bolted when police came to question him and hid in an agricultural area near Southwest 220th Street and 134th Avenue. Officers set up a perimeter near a plant nursery and used a helicopter and K9 unit to corner him.
Finally apprehended around 5:30 p.m., he and his girlfriend were questioned into Wednesday morning by homicide detectives about the murder of Tiffany Cabreja, killed over the weekend. They have not been charged with a crime.
Miguel Infante and Raquel Delgado were released from custody early Wednesday and maintain their innocence.
"I don't know this woman. I've never seen her," Infante told Miami Herald news partner CBS4.
The investigation and search for a suspect began Saturday when Cabreja’s body was found at a construction site.
Minutes earlier, witnesses said they saw a body that appeared to be Cabreja’s fall out of the passenger seat of a commercial truck used for landscaping or lawn work traveling east on Southwest 288th Street when it made a left turn at 144th Avenue.
The driver, according to a witness, stopped the truck, placed the body back inside the truck and continued northbound on Southwest 144th Avenue. The witness tried to follow the truck but lost it. Police found the body nearby a short time later.
Delgado said she is the one who threw herself out of the truck due to "one of my moods."
Detectives said there was a small child in the truck with the man. On Tuesday afternoon, officers also located the truck and the child. The truck was found in a different location as the suspect. The truck is being processed by investigators.
That child was found safe and unharmed, Miami-Dade police spokesman Detective Roy Rutland said.
“The child remains with family and his/her relationship with the suspect has not been released,” he said in a written statement.
Cabreja’s father told detectives his daughter went out Friday with a friend, a man he said drove a large truck and was the father of a 3-year-old child.
Police had been searching for the suspect since then.
Miami Herald newspartner CBS4 contributed to this report.
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