TikTok Fitness influencer Minelys Zoe Rodriguez-Ramirez, affectionately known as “Mimi,” went missing last week in Georgia after reportedly going to Walmart to exchange a photo with someone, according to her family. Tragically, her body was found days later.
On Tuesday, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and Habersham County Sheriff’s Office located the 25-year-old’s body near a road in Cornelia, directly across from the Walmart where she was last seen on October 22.
Her family initially reported that she had visited the Walmart that night to meet an “acquaintance” and sell a photo, although it remains unclear if she knew this person well or what exactly the photo entailed.
Rodriguez-Ramirez, a mother to a 9-year-old daughter who lives in Puerto Rico with her father, was last seen around 9:30 p.m. at Walmart. Shortly after, her fiancé, Julio Tovor, received a strange message from her phone: “I am waiting for the brother to pick him up.”
The wording seemed unlike her usual speech, raising Tovor’s concern. “It didn’t make sense,” Tovor told local media outlet Now Habersham. Rodriguez-Ramirez never returned home that night, prompting Tovor and her family to report her missing the following day, October 23.
The Habersham County Sheriff’s Office swiftly issued alerts and requested the GBI’s assistance as they launched a search for the missing TikTok personality, whose following on the platform had grown to over 35,000 with her popular workout and lifestyle videos.
As part of the investigation, authorities arrested 24-year-old Angel DeJesus Rivera-Sanchez in Atlanta on October 25 on kidnapping charges connected to Rodriguez-Ramirez’s disappearance.
At the time, her remains had not yet been located, so he was not initially charged with murder. However, on October 29, with the help of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, authorities discovered Rodriguez-Ramirez’s body, leading to an upgrade of charges against Rivera-Sanchez to include murder.
The specific circumstances surrounding her death are still under investigation, and officials have yet to disclose her cause of death.
Originally from Puerto Rico, Rodriguez-Ramirez had moved to Georgia six years ago when Mt. Vernon Mills offered her a job. Her mother, Carmen Ramirez, spoke about Mimi’s close relationship with her daughter, emphasizing how much she adored her child. Tovor, too, expressed how deeply she valued her role as a mother, describing her devotion to her family.
The family has since started a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for her funeral and plans to transport her body back to Puerto Rico, where they hope to give her a Christian burial in her homeland.
“We are raising funds for funeral expenses to take her to Puerto Rico and give her a Christian burial on the island where she was born,” her mother wrote on the fundraising page.
An autopsy is expected to be completed before her body can be sent to Puerto Rico, according to authorities.
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