Bond for the prime suspect in the disappearance of 16-year-old Alexandria Chery has been increased to $200,000 as the missing teenager's family and the Orange County Sheriff's Office continue to wait for the medical examiner to identify a body found Friday in Osceola County.
Sanel Saint Simon's bond increased from $7,650 on charges of evidence tampering and lying to law enforcement. A judge Tuesday set the bond to $100,000 for each charge after new documents obtained Monday "preliminarily" identified the body as the missing teen.
Prosecutors had wanted Saint Simon's bond set at $500,000 in a motion filed Monday.
"Mr. Saint Simon knows that he is a suspect in this investigation, that the Orange County Sheriff's Office continues to work that investigation with our partners, and I question why someone would want to stay around in the community knowing that this investigation is continuing to go forward and we're finding new evidence every day," Assistant State Attorney Ryan Vescio said at Tuesday afternoon's hearing.
State attorneys admit that not much is known about Saint Simon, who illegally came to the United States from Haiti. Saint Simon's first language is Creole, and he requires a translator.
Other details of Saint Simon's past emerged Tuesday.
Court documents show he has been married to a woman named Helene Achat since 2002. He also has two children of his own, a 10-year-old son and an 11-year-old girl. Divorce filings show the couple separated in 2005 and filed for divorce in 2008.
The divorce was never finalized, though.
Saint Simon described the marriage as "irrevocably broken" and requested liberal visitation with his children. But Saint Simon and Achat both failed to attend the final divorce hearing, and so the case was dismissed in 2010.
Saint Simon had already been dating Chery's mother, Rosalie Joseph, while he filed for divorce. Saint Simon and Joseph have been dating for seven years.
More new documents detail the alleged lies Saint Simon told to detectives, along with evidence found in the Pine Hills-area home of his girlfriend, Chery's mother.
According to an arrest report, detectives believe Saint Simon lied repeatedly to investigators while they were still searching for Chery, who is now presumed dead.
An inside look at the documents released by the Orange County Sheriff's Office showed Saint Simon provided false information about where he was on July 28, the day Chery disappeared.
Investigators said Saint Simon told them he was at his job at Boston Market, but they later found out he left work early that morning in a black Pontiac.
According to detectives, a family member came forward saying Saint Simon approached him and asked him to lie to law enforcement about Saint Simon having possession of the car that day.
When investigators looked in the car, they found what appeared to be blood inside. Samples from the car were collected for testing.
A witness told detectives he spotted a similar vehicle stopped with its hazard lights along Osceola-Polk Line Road where the body preliminarily identified as Chery was found Friday. A landscaper spotted the human remains in a wooded area near the entrance to the Reunion community, east of I-4 at ChampionsGate.
Detectives said they are still awaiting positive identification on the remains from the medical examiner's office, but added the body contained "numerous similar features and characteristics of Alexandria Chery."
Investigators have also begun detailing evidence found in the teenager’s home. Reports indicate blood spatters were found in Chery's bedroom, on her teddy bear, in the hallway and in a bathroom.
Detectives said they believe Saint Simon also used bleach to destroy some of that evidence.
Saint Simon, 43, has not been charged with Chery's presumed death.
An earlier hearing that was scheduled Tuesday has been moved to Wednesday.