Shadows in the Sunshine State: Unveiling Miami’s Most Iconic Murders
The rate of homicides in Miami has tripled over a decade. Will the residents of Miami ever know tranquility and stillness? Miami Florida has been a staple for tourists and quickly became one of the most populated cities in the United States. The crime rate in Miami was at its highest in 2006 with 19.6 murders per 100,000 people in comparison the murder rate in Florida was 4.97 murders per 100,000 people. Throughout the decades, Miami Florida has been the center for murderers to find their prey due to the tourists and the the fast pace of the city. These murder locations have now become a staple within Miami’s history where tourists visit these locations to learn, see, and feel the spirits of the ones who got their lives stripped away by other people such as Gianni Versace and Ana Marie Angel.
The most visited location, and notably the most iconic murder that happened in Miami would be of the Italian-based designer, Gianni Versace. Gianni Versace was shot and killed on July 15th, 1997 outside his Miami Beach Mansion, Casa Casuarina, by Andrew Cunanan. Versace was returning from a cafe where he went to pick up the magazines on the steps outside of his Mansion to be shot in the back of the head and the left cheek with a pistol that Andrew Cunanan owned. Although the motive of why Gianni Versace was killed is still unknown, it is rumored that Cunanan was targeting gay men in Miami. The Versace Mansion has now become a staple within South Beach where people come to visit, go to the restaurant, Gianni’s, and pay respect to the final resting place of the late Gianni Versace.
On April 27th, 2002 Ana Marie Angel was having a date with her boyfriend at South Pointe Park in Miami Florida where she and her boyfriend were kidnapped. Luckily, her boyfriend survived the attacks but Ana Marie Angel was kidnapped raped, and murdered by Joel LeBron and five other men later that night. Joel was not convicted for the murder for over a decade until he was finally convicted for the murder of Ana Marie Angel in 2017. the other five men that were involved in the kidnapping rape and murder of Anna Marie have still not been identified and have not been charged.
Rory Enrique Conde Got his name as the Tamiami Trail Strangler between 1994 through 1995 where he would seek out prostitutes within the Miami area and dump their bodies on the final section of Highway 41 from Tampa through Miami which was called the top Miami Trail. conned would focus on prostitutes where he would take them to his apartment in South Miami, kill and rape them then later dump their bodies on the side of the highway to be discovered by police. After convicting the Tom Miami Trail Strangler for his crimes of six women, the Miami law enforcement began to focus more on the prostitution problem they had Within some areas within Miami due to the fear of more murders.
Derek Medina, A South Florida local shot and killed his wife Jennifer Alfonso in there shot and killed his wife, Jennifer Alfonso on August 8, 2013, at their apartment. He got the name the Facebook Killer after posting various statuses on the killing and the photos of his deceased wife on his Facebook page. His apartment complex has now been closed down and vacant since 2013 due to people visiting the murder scene and wanting to see the location where his wife was murdered. the posts that Derek Medina made on Facebook became viral making This murder a national case.
Samuel Little, A Georgia-born murderer started his murder spree in Miami Florida at the age of 30 in the 1970’s where he would kill 12 women of all races within a decade. According to Little, he would meet these women at bars throughout the Miami area and kill them inside his parked car where he eventually would dump them in the Everglades. His murdering spree lasted from 1970 to 2005 where he would kill 86 people within the United States and 12 of these victims were in Miami Florida but it is suspected that he had more victims in Miami but unfortunately are still unidentified. She drew some of the unidentified women that he had murdered but police to this day have not identified any of the women he had drawn.
Overall, these murder cases, whether it was a victim or a murderer whom this crime was about impacted Miami where people have gone out of their way to visit and pay respect to the victims, learn about the cases, and see the location where they were murdered when they visit Miami Florida.
