Teen couple abducted by armed men, girl killed, boyfriend stabbed, five arrested

Posted 1:23PM on Monday 29th April 2002 ( 22 years ago )

MIAMI BEACH Fla. - Five men were arrested Monday in the armed abduction of a teen-age couple celebrating five months together on South Beach that left the girlfriend dead and the boyfriend with stab wounds, authorities said. Miami Beach police said the body was found Monday after the five men -- all from the Orlando area -- were arrested. The body of Ana Maria Angel, 18, of Miami, was found 40 miles north in Boca Raton. Police said information stemming from the arrests led them to the body but they declined to say how Angel was killed. Angel and her boyfriend, Eddy Portobanco, also 18, were returning from a night beach stroll early Sunday morning when five armed men forced them into a white Ford pickup truck and sped off, police said. Portobanco, 18, was beaten and stabbed before he was dumped about two hours later in suburban Fort Lauderdale, about 35 miles north of South Beach. He flagged down a car for help and was treated and released from a hospital, police said. Authorities said the charges against the five men had not yet been completed but said murder and kidnapping would be among them. "Some of my best prosecutors are on this case," said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle. "We will do what we can to ensure that justice is brought to these two families and to the victims." Investigators said the couple did not know their attackers and called the abduction "a random act of violence." Two transactions were made with Angel's ATM card at two downtown Miami gas stations early Sunday after the abduction, police said. Investigators declined to offer specifics about the case, but said a gun and other weapons, including knives, were recovered. Angel and Portobanco, both seniors, attended South Miami High School. They were on a date celebrating five months of going steady, her family said. A family friend said police told Angel's mother, Margarita Osorio, of her daughter's death early Monday. "She's in a very bad way. She can't speak. She's crying all the time," said Mauricio Meneces, a family friend. "She's surrounded by her friends right now. She had no other family here. It was just her and her daughter." The mother and daughter moved to Miami from Medellin, Colombia, 12 years ago, Meneces said. She said Ana Maria Angel's father still lives in Colombia. "She's just waiting to receive her daughter's body, so she can bury her and try to go on."

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/4/202342