ORLANDO, Fla. — Friday marks one year since the death of Miya Marcano. Investigators suspect a maintenance worker at the Arden Villas Apartment Complex where she lived killed the 19-year-old college student, and her death led to a domino effect of a statewide focus on apartment safety.

Arden Villas resident Gianna Melendez says it's hard to forget what took place in her complex a year ago. 

"I still think about it constantly," Melendez said. "They have a memorial up there. I constantly pass by it. It's always in the back of my head."

Since the killing, Gov. DeSantis signed Miya’s Law in July of this year with hopes to improve apartment tenant safety statewide.

"This new law is going to require apartment communities to keep a key log that shows the issuance and the return of keys for individual apartment homes. It also is going to require apartment communities to conduct a national background screening for all employees," said Amanda White, the government affairs director of the Florida Apartment Association. 

Miya’s Law aims to enforce a number of safety measures:

• Requiring landlords to do background screenings on employees.
  
• The law also requires those background checks to include national screenings for domestic violence and the sex offender registry.
• Apartment and maintenance staff is required to give a 24-hour notice before using a master key to enter a tenant’s unit.
• Miya’s Law requires staff to maintain a key log with details on who has access and when it’s used.

Advocates of the law say all of these requirements are in place to further one goal: To make sure what happened to Marcano does not happen to anyone else.

Former Arden Villas resident and friend of Miya Marcano came out to the complex to light some candles and say a prayer on the first anniversay of her death. (Spectrum News/Asher Wildman)

At Arden Villas, Melendez said units inside also have clamps put inside tenants bedrooms as an extra security measure. 

Other tenants said security makes frequent rounds at night and the main entrance is always staffed, when a year ago the gate was often left open.

“What this new law does is establishes consistencies across the state, and makes these best practices now requirements under the law," White said. 

Miya's Law goes into effect Jan. 1, 2023. 

Marcano’s family is hosting a “day of remembrance” event Friday at 6 p.m. It’ll be at the Arden Villas Apartment Complex in Orlando, where she used to live in.

She was last seen on Friday, Sept. 24, 2021, and her body was found Saturday, Oct. 02, 2021. Maintenance worker Armando Manuel Caballero was named a person of interest in the case. His body was found after he killed himself, officials stated.