The Polk County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday that deputies captured 26-year-old Enrique Martinez, a man wanted as a suspect in two killings since November.
Sheriff Grady Judd said Martinez is the prime suspect in the death of 20-year-old Sierra Hernandez. But the Sheriff’s Office has yet to provide details on how the Winter Haven woman, reported missing by her family on Jan. 14, met her end.
Here’s what The Ledger knows so far, based on news conferences, police and court records:
Sierra Hernandez goes missing
Hernandez is a graduate of Winter Haven High School.
- Social media posts indicate she last spoke to her family Jan. 8 and might have been sleeping in her car.
- She was driving a 1996 gray Crown Victoria.
- Family members report she was last seen with 21-year-old Blake Sterling of Winter Haven.
- A missing-person report was filed Jan. 14.
Hernandez’s car found
One day after Hernandez’s family filed a missing-person report, Polk deputies arrested an individual who was driving her car:
- Daphne Ann Fernandez, 44, of Winter Haven, was pulled over Jan. 15 by deputies while driving Hernandez’s vehicle along U.S. 92/Memorial Boulevard in Lakeland.
- Fernandez was arrested and charged with knowingly driving on a suspended or revoked driver’s license.
- Fernandez was booked into jail on $5,000 bond.
- On Jan. 22, Fernandez faced an additional first-degree felony charge of being an accessory after the fact to a capital felony.
- The State Attorney’s Office filed a motion Jan. 22 for Fernandez to be held in jail without bail until her trial, under a new state law that took effect Jan. 1.
- Since then, Fernandez has been charged with attempted murder, kidnap with intention to commit or facilitate a felony and abuse of a dead human body. The State Attorney’s Office refiled its motion to hold her without bail on Jan. 24.