John Jefferson
Background: Minelys Zoe Rodriguez-Ramirez. Inset: Angel DeJesus Rivera-Sanchez (Images via Habersham (Ga.) County Sheriff’s Office).
Fitness TikToker Minelys Zoe Rodriguez-Ramirez — known to loved ones as Mimi — went missing in Georgia last week following a reported trip to Walmart to exchange a photo with someone, her family says.
On Tuesday, agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Habersham County Sheriff’s Office found the 25-year-old’s slain body in the city of Cornelia, on a road located directly in front of the Walmart where she disappeared, according to officials.
Her family told the local media outlet Now Habersham last week that Rodriguez-Ramirez had gone to the store on Oct. 22 to sell a photo to an “acquaintance.” It’s unclear whether the photo was of Rodriguez-Ramirez herself, or whether the person she was meeting was someone she knew well.
At around 9:30 p.m. that night — the same time that Rodriguez-Ramirez, a mother of a 9-year-old, was reportedly last seen at the Walmart — a bizarre text message got sent from her phone to her fiance, Julio Tovor.
“I am waiting for the brother to pick him up,” the text read, according to Tovor. It was the last message he received from her phone.
“It didn’t make sense,” he told Now Habersham. “She doesn’t talk like that.”
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After Rodriguez-Ramirez failed to come home, Tovor and her family reported her missing the next day on Oct. 23 and a search quickly got underway, with HCSO officials sending out news bulletins and alerts about the TikToker‘s disappearance. The sheriff’s office requested assistance from the GBI with its investigation on Oct. 25, according to officials.
On Monday, GBI agents arrested a 24-year-old man named Angel DeJesus Rivera-Sanchez in Atlanta — about an hour and a half drive from Cornelia — on kidnapping charges related to Rodriguez-Ramirez’s disappearance. He wasn’t charged with murder initially because her remains hadn’t been found yet.
On Tuesday, investigators and local deputies found Rodriguez-Ramirez’s body with assistance from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, prompting Rivera-Sanchez to be charged with murder. It’s still unclear how Rodriguez-Ramirez was killed.
With over 35,000 followers on TikTok, the young woman made an online name for herself with workout videos and posts about her personal life, which have racked up millions of views. Posts she made on Oct. 21 and Oct. 22 each now have over 1.2 million views, respectively.
“Everybody calls her Mimi,” her mom, Carmen Ramirez, told Now Habersham while she was still missing. “My daughter moved here six years ago when Mt. Vernon Mills offered her a job while she was living in Puerto Rico.”
Minelys Zoe Rodriguez-Ramirez (Images via Habersham (Ga.) County Sheriff’s Office and Facebook).
Tovor, while speaking to the local outlet, described Rodriguez-Ramirez as a devoted mother who loved her child very much.
“Minelys talked about her daughter a lot,” he said, noting how the girl lives in Puerto Rico with her dad. “She treasured her daughter.”
Rodriguez-Ramirez’s family plans to take her body back to the U.S. island territory for her burial, as they explained on a GoFundMe page.
“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,” Carmen says in the description.
Authorities must first complete an autopsy on Rodriguez-Ramirez before her body can be transported. Attempts to reach the coroner for comment by Law&Crime have been unsuccessful.
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