Missing Lyft driver from Palm Beach County is dead, family says

The family of Gary Levin, the 74-year-old Lyft driver who vanished a week ago, said Tuesday that he is dead.

Levin, of Palm Beach Gardens, vanished on Jan. 30 during a trip from Delray Beach to Okeechobee.

Levin’s daughter wrote in a Facebook post the day after her father went missing that his phone was turned off and his family “lost all communication with him,” something out of the ordinary for Levin, who was “never without his technology.”

Levin was logged into the Lyft app shortly before 1:30 p.m. Jan. 30 and was driving in the Miami area, then later near Okeechobee, his daughter wrote. Levin’s phone was last on about 4 p.m. that day in Okeechobee.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents found human remains in a wooded area in northern Okeechobee County. FDLE said in a news release Tuesday afternoon that the remains have been identified, but the department did not release the person’s name, citing Marsy’s Law, a voter-approved constitutional amendment that allows crime victims to withhold identifying information from the public.

A homicide investigation is ongoing, FDLE said.

Authorities recovered Levin’s car, a red Kia Stinger, in North Carolina on Thursday. Matthew Scott Flores, a 35-year-old man who is wanted for murder in the City of Wauchula in Hardee County, was driving.

Before his arrest in North Carolina, the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post on Jan. 27 that officials were searching for Flores, who was last seen at the time driving a Nissan Altima with a Florida license plate.

The Wauchula Police Department said in a Facebook post Friday that Flores was taken into custody and hospitalized after crashing during a police pursuit that spanned three counties in North Carolina.

Levin’s family will announce services in the coming days.

Information from WPEC-CBS 12, a news partner of the South Florida Sun Sentinel, was used in this report.