{"id":2298,"date":"2026-06-12T22:33:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T22:33:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=2298"},"modified":"2026-06-12T22:33:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T22:33:49","slug":"detectives-homestead-homeowner-says-drunk-man-trying-to-have-sex-with-tree-fell-from-ladder-it-turned-out-to-be-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=2298","title":{"rendered":"Detectives: Homestead homeowner says drunk man trying to have sex with tree fell from ladder \u2014 it turned out to be murder"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 An 11-year-old girl lived a haunting nightmare while living at her great-aunt\u2019s house near Redondo Elementary School in Homestead, records show. <\/p>\n

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Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/p>\n

It took more than two years after her father\u2019s murder and months after her mother\u2019s deportation for Miami-Dade Sheriff\u2019s Office detectives to uncover what the girl had experienced and witnessed, records show. <\/p>\n

With the support of MDSO detectives, the Miami-Dade State Attorney\u2019s Office, and the Kristi House Children\u2019s Advocacy Center, the girl faced her fear of her abuser and eventually spoke up, records show. <\/p>\n

On June 10, Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge William Altfield issued a warrant for the search of the house and the arrest of Christian Heras, the girl\u2019s second cousin, who also lived at the house. <\/p>\n

MDSO detectives reported their investigations uncovered Heras, then 28 and 29, sexually abused the girl for months in 2024 before killing her concerned father and threatening to kill her mother.<\/p>\n

Here is the timeline of the girl\u2019s suffering and the MDSO detectives\u2019 investigations as described by Altfield\u2019s warrant:<\/p>\n

On Dec. 16, 2024, Homestead Police Department officers and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel responded to a report of a fatal fall in a house\u2019s backyard near Northwest 10th Avenue and 12th Street.<\/p>\n

Homeowner Angelica Medina, Heras\u2019s mother and the girl\u2019s great aunt, told police that the girl\u2019s father had a drinking problem, and he would get so drunk that he \u201cwould climb up\u201d the ladder to \u201chave sexual intercourse with trees\u201d in the yard. <\/p>\n

MDFR personnel declared the girl\u2019s father dead, HPD asked MDSO to take over the case, and a homicide investigator reported the girl\u2019s father had suffered a \u201ccompound skull fracture, which exposed his brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The homicide investigator, who was wearing a body camera and taking pictures, also reported finding what appeared to be blood on a ladder and on a cement garden brick that \u201chad several strands of hair.\u201d<\/p>\n

The girl\u2019s mother told detectives that her husband had vanished overnight before Heras showed her the body covered with palm fronds, facing upward on the ground near a tree, under a ladder. <\/p>\n

The girl\u2019s mother said Heras then started \u201cscreaming profanities\u201d at her dead husband, and later said dogs were \u201clicking the blood on the cement brick\u201d that a detective was looking for after seizing the ladder. <\/p>\n

Heras told the detective that the girl\u2019s mother had used the cement brick that was near her dead husband to set up a memorial in the backyard, but the girl\u2019s mother told the detective that wasn\u2019t true. <\/p>\n

Detectives learned that before the murder, the girl\u2019s father was concerned about Heras \u201calways trying to be alone\u201d with her, so he asked the girl\u2019s mother to \u201cnot let\u201d him be with the girl \u201cwithout supervision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Detectives also learned from relatives that after the girl\u2019s father confronted Heras and asked him to avoid getting \u201ctoo close\u201d to his 11-year-old daughter, Heras showed him \u201ca handgun to scare him.\u201d <\/p>\n

On Jan. 28, 2025, the medical examiner\u2019s office reported the victim was \u201cbludgeoned to death, and that it appeared that the homicide scene was staged.\u201d <\/p>\n

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On Feb. 5, 2025, the medical examiner\u2019s office released a toxicology report showing the victim \u201cdid not have any alcohol or drugs in his system at the time of his death.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the MDSO homicide investigation, the girl\u2019s mother moved out of the house in Homestead and traveled to Dallas, Texas, with her kids to live with her husband\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

On Feb. 14, 2025, a detective who traveled to Dallas and interviewed the girl reported she \u201cexhibited signs of possible sexual abuse\u201d and recommended a specialized forensic interview.<\/p>\n

On March 10, 2025, the medical examiner\u2019s office reported that the girl\u2019s father\u2019s cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and determined that the manner of death was a homicide. <\/p>\n

On May 26, 2025, the girl\u2019s mother was detained in Dallas, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported her to Mexico.<\/p>\n

On June 6, 2025, the girl was the subject of a \u201cvideo-recorded forensic interview\u201d at the Dallas Children\u2019s Advocacy Center and said she had told her mother that Heras confessed to killing her father, and gifted her a cell phone that her mother then threw away.<\/p>\n

The girl did not disclose the sexual abuse until 2026. <\/p>\n

On Feb. 13, the girl\u2019s relatives reported that she said Heras had molested her in Homestead, so a detective decided she needed to undergo a second forensic interview.<\/p>\n

On May 13, the girl\u2019s aunt told a detective, who was trying to schedule the second forensic interview, that on Jan. 22, the girl told her that she had been the victim of a sexual battery in Homestead.<\/p>\n

On May 21, a detective with the special victims bureau and a homicide detective were with the girl when she participated in a \u201cvideo-recorded forensic interview\u201d at the Kristi House Children\u2019s Advocacy Center in Miami-Dade County. <\/p>\n

The girl described how Heras \u201cdidn\u2019t care\u201d if she was in pain when he sexually battered her more than five times, and she did not report his abuse or that she had seen her father dead after Heras killed him and covered it up, \u201cbecause she was scared and did not trust anyone\u201d \u2014 until then. <\/p>\n

THE ARREST IN HOMESTEAD<\/b><\/p>\n

On Thursday morning, MDSO deputies were searching the house in Homestead when they found Heras at a window \u201ctrying to flee,\u201d and he \u201ctensed his body\u201d while they handcuffed him, according to the arrest report.<\/p>\n

At 8 a.m., on Thursday, detectives arrested Heras at the office of the MDSO special victims\u2019 bureau, at 1701 NW 87th Ave., according to the arrest report. <\/p>\n

Miami-Dade corrections booked Heras at 6:45 p.m. on Thursday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where he remained without bond on Friday afternoon, according to county inmate records. <\/p>\n

Heras faced charges of first-degree murder, five counts of sexual battery on a minor by an adult, and resisting arrest without violence, according to court records. <\/p>\n

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Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Marcus Bach was set to preside over the case. <\/p>\n

This report doesn\u2019t identify the girl\u2019s parents to protect her identity. <\/i><\/p>\n

Local 10 News Assignment Editor Mercedes Cevallos contributed to this report. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An 11-year-old girl lived a horrific nightmare for months in 2024 while living in a house near Redondo Elementary School in Homestead, records show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nDetectives: Homestead homeowner says drunk man trying to have sex with tree fell from ladder \u2014 it turned out to be murder - South Florida Moving Guides<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southfloridamovingguides.com\/?p=2298\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Detectives: Homestead homeowner says drunk man trying to have sex with tree fell from ladder \u2014 it turned out to be murder - 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