The husband of Meliza Campos Sánchez, the 26-year-old Cuban woman arrested in Miami-Dade after posting videos in which she poured hot wax on her daughters and started a fire in her home, revealed that he tried to alert the authorities before any of these incidents occurred, but did not receive an effective response.
Yusniel Cue stated to the press that he had called the Police three times to warn about his wife's deteriorating mental state, from whom he had been separated for about a week at the time of the events.
"They told me that until a crime was committed, they couldn't take her, they couldn't do anything," Cue stated, who also consulted a psychiatrist and received a similar response: the specialist informed him that he could only admit Meliza if she came voluntarily.
"We have never had any problems; it's just that she is not well mentally, and that's something no one ever helped me with," added the man, who was the one who triggered the police intervention after receiving a video of the hot wax from friends of the accused and immediately calling the Sheriff's Office.
On Friday, Campos Sánchez appeared before a Miami-Dade court, smiling and blowing kisses to his family members during the hearing.
The judge ordered that she be evaluated by two Spanish-speaking doctors to determine her mental competency.
In addition to Yusniel, other relatives came to show their support for the young woman. They insist that she was going through a mental health crisis, that she had been prescribed medication but stopped taking it, and they urge that she not be judged solely by the images circulated on social media.
"There are many women testifying that she is a good woman, that she is a very good mother, and that in her right mind, she would not have done this," declared Aliuska Rodríguez, Meliza's cousin.
The central incident occurred on Sunday, August 17, at a home in southwest Miami-Dade. Campos Sánchez used a stick lighter to intentionally set fire to a garment sprayed with flammable liquid while his daughters—aged three and six—were inside the house. It was the older girl who extinguished the flames with a container of water.
Authorities also found as key evidence two videos that the accused herself had posted on her Instagram account, where she presented herself as the "Realtor without filters" and had tens of thousands of followers.
In one of those videos, the woman poured melted wax first onto her own leg and then onto the hands of her three-year-old daughter, while saying to her, "The fears you are feeling today will be your strength tomorrow." The little girl replied, "That burns."
Campos Sánchez was arrested on Monday, August 18, first transferred to a hospital for mental health evaluation under Florida's Baker Act—which allows for involuntary hospitalization for up to 72 hours—and then admitted to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
A judge ordered his detention without bail and appointed a public defender. He faces charges of first-degree arson, child abuse, and two counts of child neglect.
The two girls remain in the custody of their father. The next hearing is scheduled for September 11, when the results of the medical evaluations are expected, which will determine whether Campos Sánchez is mentally competent to stand trial.
Parallely, the case took on a migratory dimension. The Department of Homeland Security reported that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a detention order against Campos Sánchez, labeled as "Miami Menace," and will seek to deport her once she faces the criminal proceedings. According to authorities, she entered the United States illegally through Florida in May 2022.
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