In February 1998, Michel Barrera robbed a bank with an accomplice. They robbed the bank of just over $20,000 (equivalent to $37,387 in 2023) .
Three months later, on May 1, 1998, Barrera and his accomplice drove to the National Republic Bank in Miami. The two men exited the stolen car and entered the bank. After the robbery was over, the two men got into the stolen vehicle. A police officer then started following them. Barrera fired a shotgun multiple times at the officer.[3] Later that day, Barrera and his accomplice ditched the stolen car; they then stole another vehicle from a man.
The accomplice in the bank robbery was arrested by Miami-Dade police.[4] Barrera, though, managed to evade police. He later disappeared.
Almost nine years later in March 2007, a 52-year-old woman, Randi Gorenberg, was kidnapped not long after leaving the Town Center Mall in Boca Raton, Florida on the afternoon of Friday, March 23.[5] The abductor drove Gorenberg to the South County Civic Center, shot her and tossed her body from the passenger side of her Mercedes SUV. At the time of the Gorenberg murder, Barrera owned a four door Chrysler 300. An informant told the PBSO that gang members might have assisted in the Gorenberg killing.[6]
