Informant tells PBSO that Gorenberg murder was gang-related
By Dale M. King
BOCA RATON – A confidential informant has told the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office that the murder of Randi Gorenberg more than four years ago was gang-related.
The new information, sent to news media last week, was also presented on “America’s Most Wanted” the night of June 4.
According to PBSO, investigators are seeking the whereabouts of Michael Barrera, who is now considered “a person of interest” in the Gorenberg murder. Eric Davis from the PBSO Public Affairs Office said “assistance is being requested from the public in determining his current whereabouts.”
“Probable cause does not exist to arrest Barrera for the murder,” Davis said. “However, there are multiple outstanding warrants from Dade County [against him,] including, but not limited to attempted murder on law enforcement, armed bank robbery, fleeing and eluding and shooting at police during a high speed chase.
Information related to Barrera was provided to PBSO’s Violent Crimes Division “through a confidential informant who was incarcerated at the time of the Gorenberg murder,” said Davis. “The informant advised that after the murder and while still incarcerated, he/she overheard known MS 13 Gang members talking about Randi’s murder and how gang members were responsible for the crime. The informant also advised that a hit man, believed to be Michel Barrera, assisted the gang.
Gorenberg was apparently abducted after leaving Town Center Mall in Boca Raton Mall the afternoon of March 23, 2007. The abductor drove her to the rear of the South County Civic Center where he shot her and tossed her body out of the passenger side of her Mercedes SUV. He then drove off in Gorenberg’s car, ditching it near a Home Depot store nearby.
Davis said “Barrera has family members living in Miami who, at the time of the Gorenberg murder, owned a silver Chrysler 300 four-door vehicle. This is the type vehicle believed to be seen in a Home Depot surveillance video following behind the Mercedes SUV, just after the shooting and just before the Mercedes was abandoned in the Home Depot lot. Barrera’s father is currently incarcerated at a federal prison in Miami and his older brother is in a state prison in north Florida.”
On “America’s Most Wanted,” host John Walsh said Barrera has been featured in 15 AMW programs about his exploits in Dade County.
Barrera is considered armed and dangerous, Davis said, and could be traveling in and out of the United States and the South Florida area from Mexico. It is possible Barrera is living and traveling under a fictitious identity.
