Police charge co-worker and ‘obsessed stalker’ in stabbing death of woman in Miami Beach

The stabbing death of 28-year-old Delfina Pan in Miami Beach early this week made headlines in her native Argentina, where the online news site Today in 24 branded her suspected killer “an obsessed stalker.” Another news site called her death “femicide.”

But in Miami Beach, where she lived, police were unusually quiet about the brutal killing. For three days, the only information released by police was a single Twitter post that said when officers arrived they found a male and female “with apparent stab wounds” and that they were both transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital.

“Preliminary info suggests this incident is domestic related,” the tweet said. It wasn’t.

On Thursday night, Miami Beach Police finally released a narrative describing Pan’s death and naming the man charged with killing her.

Police said that after Agustin Lucas Mariani’s romantic requests were spurned by Pan, he waited for her at her Harding Avenue apartment in North Beach early Monday night. Police say he became so enraged when she showed up and refused to invite him in that he killed her.

Then, according to a neighbor and witness, he ripped off his shirt and stabbed himself in the upper chest. It didn’t kill him. Thursday, police charged Mariani with second-degree murder while he was still in the hospital recovering.

According to a neighbor and friend of Pan’s, police said, “the defendant arrived at the victim’s apartment, uninvited, and waited for the victim.” When Pan arrived, Mariani asked to talk to her in her apartment. When she refused, the neighbor told police, “he produced a knife and without being provoked began to stab the victim.”

Pan, a graphic designer who attended the University of Buenos Aires, moved to Miami Beach two years ago, friends told Argentine media outlets. For the past several months she’s had a job at the Lincoln Road restaurant, Kansas Bar & Grill, where Mariani also worked. It wasn’t immediately clear what jobs the two had at the restaurant.

An online news site called Zyri said that Mariani was also from Argentina and that his LinkedIn page, which has been taken down, said he had completed a course at Aeronautical Professional Training Institute after high school to become a cabin crew member.

Friends and co-workers told police that Mariani has been obsessed with her for several months, often professing his love for her. And that out of fear, Pan declined his offers, gently, careful not to inflame him. On Monday night, according to Mariani’s arrest report, the obsession turned lethal.

Police said Pan left work early for some reason on Monday, when she was scheduled to work until 6 p.m. Mariani, the restaurant’s general manager told police, was scheduled to work a double shift the same day, until 11:30 p.m. But, the manager said, he left shortly after Pan did.

One of Pan’s neighbors said Mariani showed up at her apartment in the 7300 block of Harding Avenue before Pan got home. The neighbor told police that he witnessed the incident. When police arrived, Mariani, stabbed and bleeding, was lying on top of Pan outside her apartment.

They were both rushed to the hospital, where Pan was declared dead. The scene was so gruesome, that police who responded were given time off by the department to recover.

Police also believe they recovered a key piece of evidence. A knife that matched the description of the one used to kill Pan was reported missing from the restaurant.

A co-worker of Pan’s told Today in 24 that Pan said she feared Mariani and that she had several uncomfortable interactions with Mariani.

“He worked with us. A super strange boy and nobody knew anything about his life. He went to work and did not say hello to anyone,” Pan’s friend told the media outlet.

Police said Mariani refused to provide a statement and invoked his right to keep silent before he was charged. Police said Pan’s neighbor identified him from a photo lineup.