ORLANDO, Fla. – Haitian community leaders held a vigil Sunday for Carline Brumaire-Jean, the once missing mother found dead in a retention pond near Universal Studios last week.
They called on the Orange County Sheriff's Office and the Orlando Police Department to better handle missing persons investigations after it took nearly a month to find Brumaire-Jean, despite a 911 call reporting a car in a pond the day she went missing.
A spokesman for the family said Orlando police met with Brumaire-Jean's family Friday. Voy Colas said police admitted the 911 operator who handled the call did not stay on the phone with the caller long enough to get an accurate description of the area where the caller saw Brumaire-Jean's car.
But Orlando Police spokesman Sgt. Jim Young disputes the family's claim that police admitted any wrongdoing as it relates to the 911 call.
More than 50 people gathered at Universal Way and Vineland Avenue to light candles, sing and remember the 32-year-old mother.
Police found her body inside her car in a retention pond near the Royal Pacific Hotel Monday night. She was reported missing on Feb. 9, the same day police said the caller reported seeing a woman in a car inside the pond.
OPD has launched an internal investigation into how the case was handled after officers who responded to the pond never searched inside and didn't know about the missing persons case being handled by OCSO.