(Warning: Contains reference to graphic accounts of a crime.)
WINTER HAVEN -- A 44-year-old Winter Haven woman is now in custody, facing attempted murder and other charges, likely related to the murder of 20-year-old Sierra Hernandez.
Daphne Fernandez was in court in Polk County on Wednesday. She's the second suspect in the case, and according to an affidavit, there is probable cause to charge her as an accessory to first-degree murder.
26-year-old Enrique Martinez is in custody, but has not been charged in Hernandez's death.
According to an affidavit, the victim had told someone on video she planned to go camping with a man named Blake Sterling. He told deputies he met a woman at Fernandez' home on Avenue T Northwest. Sterling arranged for the woman to spend the night. He returned the next day and says he saw Fernandez and Martinez with the woman, whose hands and wrists were bound in front of her. The affidavit says Sterling recognized Martinez as a suspect in the November murder of a homeless man. He claimed that he overheard Fernandez say to the victim, "You're not going to call the cops are you?" Sterling claimed he hid in the woods for several days, out of fear of Martinez.
Fernandez was stopped in the Lakeland area driving a car that belonged to Hernandez, according to the affidavit.
Another woman told deputies that she heard another man tell a friend that Hernandez was tied up and tortured in the home on Avenue T. She told deputies she saw a large fire in the back yard on Avenue T and that she believed the victim's body had been burned there.
Prosecutors are charging Fernandez with several offenses, including improper handling of a body.
This comes as charges have been dropped against five members of Hernandez's family, who were caught digging for Hernandez' remains, apparently in the same back yard, after hearing much of the same information on social media. They reported her missing on January 14th, several days after she is believed to have been abducted and tortured.
Photo: PCSO/Canva