Remains Identified, Suspect's Father May Have Inadvertently Helped Solve Case
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Police said the medical examiner has confirmed the remains discovered inside of a submerged vehicle in a canal earlier in the week are those of Raquel Calderin.
The Ford Expedition was discovered June 16 along Krome Avenue north of the Tamiami Trail.
Cops may have not found her body had it not been for information from an unlikely and possibly unwitting source, the suspects father.
Watch Lauren Pastrana's report, click here.
Calderin's husband, Jesus Maqueira, was charged February 8th, 2013 in his wife's death.
In a Miami-Dade Police interview room last week, Felix Maqueira, Jesus' father, told police "Jesus called me" the night of Calderin was last seen alive on September 4, 2012.
Video of the interrogation was obtained by our partners at The Miami Herald Thursday.
In it, Felix Maqueira tells a detective "I went to get Jesus."
The detective then asks, "OK, where did you go get him?"
Felix Maqueira responds, "He was right there on the same corner of 8th and Krome."
Days after the interview, police divers found Calderin's SUV about a mile north of that intersection in a canal.
The elder Maqueira told police he saw Calderin drive off in her car, but then said he saw the car, but not Calderin.
The Herald reports Felix Maqueira intially told cops he never left the house that night, but changed his tune once presented with SunPass records showing him on the Turnpike, not far from Krome.
In light of the newly released video, Jesus Maqueira's attorney, Alex Michaels, told CBS4's Lauren Pastrana "This video doesn't prove anything." He called the evidence "circumstantial."
Maqueira and Calderin were married for more than 20 years and had a history of domestic abuse and stalking. Records show Calderin described her husband as "controlling and jealous."
Police said Maqueira even told them he placed a GPS tracking device on his wife's car.
Records show Calderin filed for divorce in July 2012 and also sought a stay away order against Maqueira.
When Maqueira was questioned several months following Calderin's disappearance, he reportedly told detectives, "Look, I killed her. Take me to jail already."
His defense attorney said that was not a confession.
The police narrative also said Maqueira told investigators, "without Raquel's body, there was very little (they) could do to him."
Maqueira is charged with first degree murder and aggravated stalking.
He's scheduled to go to trial for his wife's murder next month.
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