TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Editor's Note: The video in the player above is from Nov. 2021 when lawmakers filed the bill.
A bill aiming to improve tenant safety in apartment buildings received unanimous approval in the Florida Senate Wednesday.
SB 898: Tenant Safety, filed by Sen. Linda Stewart (D-Orlando), is also known as "Miya's Law" given 19-year-old Miya Marcano inspired the bill.
The Florida college student's story caught national attention in 2021 when she disappeared on Sept. 24 shortly after a maintenance worker, Armando Caballero, was reported to have been seen letting himself into her apartment with a master key.
Caballero, who was said to have expressed unrequited interest in Marcano, was named a person of interest in her disappearance. Days later, the Orange County Sheriff's Office says he was found dead in an apparent death by suicide.
It was eight days before officials confirmed Marcano's body was found bound with duct tape around her wrists, feet and mouth in a wooded area in Central Florida.
“Miya’s death is an awful tragedy – one that has put a spotlight on problems with apartment safety and security,” Stewart said in a statement at the time the bill was filed.
"Miya's Law" strengthens requirements regarding access to individual units, increases required notice to 24 hours, requires apartments to establish policies for issuing and returning keys and requires a key log to be maintained with access only given to authorized individuals.
"The passage of this bill would represent a major win for the safety of all tenants,” Stewart said, in part.
The bill will now go to the House for approval.