Brave orphan of murdered beauty queen and Brit parents will attend funeral
But on her release from hospital the bewildered little girl was told the shattering news. The couple were gunned down during a robbery on the Puerto-Cabello to Valencia highway in Venezuela's Carabobo state on Monday. Maya was in their car with them and suffered a glancing wound to her leg during the robbery.
She was treated in hospital but did not require any surgery.
Family members arriving in Caracas from Florida, where most of Monica's family now live, told MailOnline that Maya had been allowed to leave hospital and was being cared for by her mother's cousins.
She is now expected to attend the funeral of her 29-year-old mother and ex-pat British father on Friday in Caracas.
Her fate has yet to be decided, according to her grandfather.
'We still don’t yet know whether Maya will remain in Caracas with us or go to Orlando to live with Monica’s parents', said Thomas Berry Sr, speaking at the lying in state ceremony in Caracas’s East Cemetery today.
'We will discuss it with her family once the parents have been seen off properly,' he said. 'For the moment Maya is staying with some of Monica’s cousins in Caracas. The most important thing is that she is safe'.
The pair, who were never formally divorced, were taking a New Year holiday as a family following more than a year’s estrangement which many thought was a sign of reconciliation.
'They truly loved each other, and their daughter only cemented their love”, said Monica's father, Rafael Spear, who had flown in from his home in Orlando to attend his daughter’s funeral.
Monica was an American citizen, and although she had spent the last few years in Venezuela, where she is a TV star, she had lived with her parents for years and was a graduate of the University of Central Florida.
'We all expected them to return from holiday with the news tat they were back together again'.
The camera bag belonging to the murdered Miss Venezuela Monica Spear has been found in the possession of the only woman arrested in connection with the case.
Several family members caught at 6am flight from Miami to Caracas to join up with others who had been flown to Venezuela on a jet chartered by the country's president.
Maya is being looked after by her cousins and also Rafael and his wife, Inceborg, and Berry's parents Tom and Kate who live in Caracas.
The bodies of Berry and Spear were open for public viewing on Thursday at the Eastern Caracas cemetery.