Florida
TIMELINE: Here’s what we know about woman carjacked in broad daylight near Winter Springs
SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – The Seminole County Sheriff’s Office is now investigating a homicide after they believe they found the body of a woman who was carjacked at gunpoint.
Video of an armed gunman approaching her vehicle last Thursday was taken an hour and 45 minutes before deputies found a body in a burning car in Osceola County.
As the investigation continues, there are many questions about what happened and why.
Below is the timeline of events on April 11.
12 p.m.
Sheriff Dennis Lemma said Katherine Altagracia Guerrero De Aguasvivas left Homestead just after noon and started driving to Seminole County. Her vehicle was seen driving northbound through Jupiter during her trip.
3:30-4:00 p.m.
Aguasvivas arrives in Seminole County on Interstate 4, according to the sheriff’s office. She stopped to pump gas at a Shell station located just south of State Road 436 and U.S. Highway 17-92 and stayed for approximately eight minutes. Deputies said she left there and drove through Casselberry on Button Road, and continued to drive on back roads until she arrived in the Winter Springs area.
About a half mile before the intersection of East Lake Drive and Tuskawilla Road, Sheriff Lemma says Aguasvivas noticed a green Acura was behind her before it rammed into her vehicle. At that time, her husband told deputies she called him and told him what happened.
“She picked up the phone and called her husband, told her husband that she was being rammed, that there was somebody there that was following her,” Sheriff Lemma said. “The husband provided her with the advice: Don’t stop, don’t stop anywhere.”
Law enforcement is not aware of any reports that Aguasvivas or her husband called 911 for help.
BEFORE 6 p.m.
A witness driving behind Aguasvivas’ white Dodge Durango saw the armed carjacking and recorded cell phone video of the event. It shows a masked man approaching the driver’s window and pointing a gun at her. He then gets into the back seat while the vehicle is still stopped at a red light.
Deputies believe the suspect had gotten out of the green Acura that was following Aguasvivas, Sheriff Lemma said Friday.
Both cars are seen on camera making a U-turn at the intersection.
Lemma said a passenger in the witness’s car called 911 to notify law enforcement.
Detectives suspect Aguasvivas was ordered at gunpoint to turn around again and head southbound on Tuskawilla Road toward the Seminole/Orange County line to Aloma Ave.
“Once they get to Aloma, they make a left. They go all the way across all lanes of traffic so they can get on State Road 417 southbound,” Lemma said. “They drive southbound on 417, likely getting off at the Narcoossee Road exit. They travel the back roads, ultimately turning off onto Boggy Creek Road in Osceola County.”
APPROXIMATELY 7 p.m.
Witnesses in Osceola County reported hearing gunshots and seeing smoke from a vehicle fire. Lemma said the car was badly damaged, and a body was found inside it. Authorities believe it is Aguasvivas.
They also found shell casings from a gun on the ground, investigators said Friday.
Detectives are working to find out when the suspects in the green Acura started trailing Aguasvivas and why she was in Seminole County.
Sheriff Lemma said this was not a random incident, and he believes the suspects knew exactly who they were following. Why they targeted Aguasvivas is still unclear.
“There’s a lot of unknowns, a lot of things that will leave people scratching their head, and I think the biggest is why?” Lemma said. “This isn’t a random incident. They were ramming the car half a mile before that intersection.”
Lemma told News 6 Aguasvivas spent less than an hour in Seminole County, and his deputies have no knowledge of her or the suspects living, doing business, or being in the county prior to this incident.
Her husband told deputies she was here to visit family, according to the sheriff’s office. Lemma said they have not been able to find any relatives in the area so far.
“There’s no criminal history here for either Katherine or her husband in the United States. There is no clear indicator why somebody would do this,” Lemma said.
Aguasvivas and her husband have two businesses, a barber shop and beauty salon, in South Florida, according to the sheriff’s office.
The investigation is ongoing, and the suspects and green Acura are still out there.
“We’re incredibly concerned about that Acura,” said Sheriff Lemma. “Both occupants should be considered armed and dangerous.”
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily:
Copyright 2024 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.
Florida
Florida college Republicans group chat reveals racist texts: ‘Avoid the coloreds like the plague’
It only took three weeks for a group chat for conservative students at Florida International University (FIU) to become a place where participants eagerly used racist slurs, prompting widespread condemnation from community leaders.
Abel Alexander Carvajal, secretary of Miami-Dade county’s Republican party and a student at FIU’s College of Law, reportedly started the chat after the killing of Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, in September 2025.
But on Wednesday, the Miami Herald published leaked WhatsApp conversations in which the college Republicans made racist, sexist, antisemitic and homophobic comments, including variations of the N-word used more than 400 times. Knowledge of the chat’s existence was revealed on the same day that Republican lawmakers in Florida pushed forward a bill to rename a one-mile stretch of road alongside FIU in honor of Kirk.
William Bejerano, who the Herald noted once tried to start an anti-abortion group at Miami Dade College, was the most prolific user of the N-word. Using the slur, Bejerano called for dozens of acts of extreme violence against Black people, including crucifying, beheading and dissecting.
Dariel Gonzalez, then the College Republicans’ recruitment chair, who has recently applied to become a GOP committee member, responded to the calls for violence by saying: “How edgy.” He repeatedly used “colored” to describe Black people, including writing: “Ew you had colored professors?!” and “Avoid the coloreds like the plague,” according to the Herald.
Carvajal, who was appointed to a two-year role on the city of Hialeah’s planning and zoning board earlier this year, confirmed to the paper that the group chat was his doing, but he denied knowledge of the problematic comments until the publication contacted him about its logs last week.
“It’s been five months since this was sent and this is the first time I’ve seen this message,” Carvajal told the Herald.
“I guess to an extent, I bear some responsibility, cause I created a chat. But if I had seen this at the moment, I would have removed [Bejerano] from the chat. I probably would have even blocked his number.”
The Herald found that Carvajal had deleted 14 messages sent by other participants in the chat and 42 of his own messages before the publication obtained the chat’s logs.
He also participated in some of the racist discussions. While referring to a Black student who allegedly left FIU’s College Republicans after a member of the group “called her a [N-word]”, the Floridian reported that Carvajal wrote: “Why didn’t miggress leave?” Elsewhere in the chat, the publication reported that Carvajal used “Miggress”, “Migglet” and “Migger” to refer to Black women, Black children and Black people, in general.
At one point, Gonzalez wrote: “You can fuck all the [K-word, a slur for Jewish people] you want. Just don’t marry them and procreate.”
Ian Valdes, the Turning Point USA FIU chapter president, responded, “I would def not marry a Jew,” before changing the group chat’s name from “Uber [R-word slur for disabled people] Yapping” to “Gooning in Agartha”. “Gooning” is a gen-Z slang term for male masturbation, while “Agartha” is a mythical white civilization promoted by Heinrich Himmler, one of the most powerful leaders in Nazi Germany next to Hitler.
Gonzalez reportedly described Agartha to the group chat as “Nazi heaven sort of”.
Kevin Cooper, the first Jewish chair of the Miami Dade Republican party, condemned the group chat in a statement published to X and called for Carvajal’s resignation.
“The majority of our board voted to request Carvajal’s resignation. We have commenced removal proceedings and look forward to resolution from the Republican Party of Florida,” he wrote.
That call was echoed by Juan Porras, a Republican state representative and Miami-Dade GOP state committee member, who said in a statement: “Leadership carries responsibility. When someone in a leadership role engages in this kind of behavior, it damages the trust placed in our party by voters across Florida. For that reason, I am asking the Miami Dade Republican party secretary to step down from this position.”
In a joint statement, Florida Republican state senators Alexis Calatayud, Ileana Garcia and Ana Maria Rodriguez denounced the chats and called for the expulsion from party leadership of its participants.
“The individuals in the group chat have exposed how profoundly misaligned their beliefs are to the views of the Republican party of Florida,” their statement said. “We call for the immediate expulsion of the individuals disseminating from any level of leadership of the Miami-Dade Republican Party … We will not tolerate bigotry or discrimination.”
Multiple leaked group chats from young Republicans have created controversy in recent years.
Last year, Politico published messages from a group chat of more than 100 conservatives across the country in which users also made racist and antisemitic comments. In 2022, a Young Republican group chat from North Dakota was revealed as a cesspool of homophobic and antisemitic rhetoric.
Florida
Federal judge blocks DeSantis executive order declaring CAIR a 'terrorist organization'
Florida
Gas prices rise in South Florida amid U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, as the stock market also reports a dip
Four days into the Iranian conflict, gas prices are rising at many stations in South Florida.
“I’ve traveled all over the United States,” says Stacey Williams. CBS Miami spoke to him as he was gassing up on the turnpike. He paid $66 for 20 gallons of diesel to fill his pickup truck. Williams has noted the fluctuations in fuel as he drives to locations for his work on turbines. He just spent three weeks at the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant south of Miami.
“The salary we get paid per hour does not add up to what we pay for gas, housing, and food,” he says.
Mitchell Gershon is also dealing with the higher gas prices. He has to fill three vehicles constantly for his business—Thrifty Gypsy, a pop-up store at musical venues. He’s back and forth from Orlando to Miami and says fuel is costing him 20% more. When asked how he handles these fluctuations, he said, “Have a little backup cash so you are ready for it.”
The rise in oil prices contributed to a drop in the stock market on Tuesday, which means some retirement accounts dipped, too. CBS Miami talked to Chad NeSmith, director of investments at Tobias Financial Advisors in Plantation, for perspective on the drop.
“We are seeing most of the pullback today. Yesterday was a shock,” he says. He’s not expecting runaway oil prices but says investors should stay in the loop: “Pay attention to your portfolio. Stick to your goals. Have a plan because these things are completely unpredictable.”
That unpredictability has Williams adjusting his budget. “You just cut back, cut corners, all you can do,” he says.
-
World1 week agoExclusive: DeepSeek withholds latest AI model from US chipmakers including Nvidia, sources say
-
Massachusetts1 week agoMother and daughter injured in Taunton house explosion
-
Wisconsin4 days agoSetting sail on iceboats across a frozen lake in Wisconsin
-
Maryland5 days agoAM showers Sunday in Maryland
-
Florida5 days agoFlorida man rescued after being stuck in shoulder-deep mud for days
-
Massachusetts3 days agoMassachusetts man awaits word from family in Iran after attacks
-
Denver, CO1 week ago10 acres charred, 5 injured in Thornton grass fire, evacuation orders lifted
-
Oregon6 days ago2026 OSAA Oregon Wrestling State Championship Results And Brackets – FloWrestling