Chuck Seaver, South Lake Tablet
After nearly four decades of waiting and wondering, a local family finally has answers to a missing loved one that disappeared on the evening of July 28, 1988. Ernest Joe Manzanares travelled from his home in Colorado to assist his family that was living in Ocoee at the time. Ernest arrived safe in Ocoee but soon after, a series of events would lead to more questions than answers for the family.
Ernest, 23 years of age at the time, left the family residence on Sand Dollar Key in Ocoee to confront his father and brother at an unknown location. The confrontation would stem from a plan by Ernest’s father and brother to sell Ernest’s 7-year-old sister and 8-year-old niece- his brother’s daughter, to an area motorcycle gang that the duo were active members of.
Ernest would never be heard or seen alive again. The family reported Ernest as a missing person to the Ocoee Police Department when he did not return in a few days. Per agency protocol, Ernest and his 1976 red Chevrolet Monte Carlo, were both entered in the statewide database of missing persons. The family did not immediately inform police of the plans to sell the little girls nor the planned confrontation with Ernest’s father and brother…