Mariana Cardenas, visiting her brother at the Key Colony condo complex from Los Angeles, stumbled upon a scene reminiscent of the TV show Miami Vice when she headed down to the beach on Tuesday morning.
Helicopters swirled above and yellow tape closed off the beach as homicide detectives investigated a horrific find: a human head had washed ashore.
It was not exactly a Chamber of Commerce moment for Key Biscayne. “You would think that this is a safe island, but clearly nowhere is safe — at least not close to the shore especially with all these problems,” Cardenas said.
Miami-Dade Police said the discovery was made around 8:30 a.m. by a worker raking the beach. Officials could not determine a gender, or how the head was severed.
“They are going to look at all the angles,” said Miami-Dade police spokesman Det. Argemis Colome.
One step will be to determine if there are any active missing persons cases that fit the circumstances, he said
The head was found on the portion of the beach nearest to the Ocean Sound condo building.
The medical examiner will be working to identify the person while homicide detectives investigate, police said.
Editor-in-Chief Tony Winton contributed to this report.
This story was originally published in the Key Biscayne Independent, a WLRN News partner.
