John Vargas was 29 and visiting Naples, Florida, from the Bronx to celebrate his upcoming 30th birthday and to see his sister, Connie Serbu. On July 7, 2016, his body was found in a wooded area near the 700 block of Goodlette-Frank Road alongside 18-year-old Xavier Sierra of Golden Gate. Both men had fatal gunshot wounds.

Police say Serbu lured Sierra to that spot, claiming she needed help, and that Vargas accompanied her. Court documents and reports describe a confrontation driven by Serbu’s belief Sierra had molested her daughter years earlier; a struggle followed and both men were shot. Serbu admitted to acquaintances that she planned to confront and kill Sierra, and after the shooting she called police and was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in Sierra’s death.

Serbu was convicted of second-degree murder in October 2019. The investigation into Vargas’s death remains open, and no separate charge has been filed for his killing. Does anyone have information about Vargas’s final movements in Naples or the moments before the confrontation?