GUILTY FL - Diana Mercado, 33, Lakeland, 28 April 2012

LAKELAND, Fla. - Polk County detectives are asking the public to help locate a missing Lakeland woman whose vehicle was found Sunday morning.

Diana Mercado, 33, of 10947 Pathfinder Trail in Lakeland was last seen by her boyfriend when she left for work at 5:30 a.m. Saturday.

She never showed up for to her job at the Dunkin Donuts in North Lakeland.

Mercado hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

She is described as a Hispanic female, 5'4" tall, 200 lbs., with red highlights in her hair.

She was last seen wearing a white polo-style shirt, and blue jeans.

If you see Diana Mercado, please contact the Polk County Sheriff's Office at (863) 298-6200.
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*This happend literally right up the street from me.. I talked with the mother and sisters about any search efforts and they were frantic and didnt know what to do. I offered the help of me and the business I work for.. the only info they gave me was that her abandond car was found at the Wells Fargo between route of her home and her place of employment... yikes.. I will keep you all posted

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/local/polk/missing-woman-found-dead-04302012

Updated: Monday, 30 Apr 2012, 5:28 PM EDT
Published : Monday, 30 Apr 2012, 4:56 PM EDT

LAKELAND - Polk deputies say a woman who has been missing since early Saturday morning has been found dead.

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Rest in Peace Ms. Mercado

Body of Missing Woman Found Wrapped Up In Woods Behind Home

http://dailyridge.com/?p=8956

They went back out to the home to conduct their own investigation, and contacted the PCSO Agricultural Crimes Unit to help search the approximately five acre piece of land on which the home sits. A PCSO Ag Crimes deputy located a female’s body, believed to be Diana Mercado, approximately 50 yards behind the home, in a wooded area thick with brush. The body was wrapped up and lying on the ground.

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crazy, i was at that house today.. I talked to her sisters and mom, how sad r.i.p.

From August 2013:

http://www.theledger.com/article/20130809/NEWS/130809191?p=1&tc=pg

Jarol Santiago was convicted as charged of first-degree murder in last year's slaying of Diana Mercado, 33, of Lakeland... After the verdict was read, Circuit Judge Donald Jacobsen sentenced Santiago to a mandatory life sentence for the murder...

Witnesses testified the two had a rocky relationship. Mercado's family reported her missing on April 28, 2012. Her remains were found a couple of days later behind the family's home on Pathfinder Trail. She was wrapped in a tarp and a pool cover and hidden in a wooded area with other debris.

At trial, Santiago insisted that Mercado pulled a knife on him and he was acting in self-defense when he stabbed her... He suggested other punctures to her body were caused when she got out of the car and collapsed in front of the vehicle, which rolled over her.

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