Monica Cruz and Vernon Marquis {BSO}
A couple was arrested after detectives say they engaged in a long-running pattern of unlawful sexual activity with a runaway teenage girl who had become pregnant while living in their Tamarac home.
According to investigators, Monica Cruz, 33, of Tamarac, was arrested by Coral Springs Police Department on November 26 after a months-long investigation revealed she and her boyfriend had sexual encounters with the teen when she was 16 and 17 years old. Her boyfriend, Vernon Marquis, 38, of Tamarac, was already in custody at the Broward County Main Jail at the time the investigation concluded.
The sexual activity investigation involving Cruz and Marquis began on July 2, when the teen gave birth at Jackson Memorial Hospital. A report was filed indicating the father of the child was believed to be a much older man she had been living with.
When first interviewed, investigators noted in reports that the teen denied any sexual involvement with the adults in the home and declined to provide DNA samples for herself and the newborn.
Detectives later interviewed Cruz, who said the teen first arrived in March 2024 and, at times, lived in a converted shed behind the house.
In January 2025, the teen had moved into her bedroom and was sharing the space with Marquis. Cruz said she became upset after learning the teen was only 17 and admitted the girl was 16 when she first arrived.
Investigators also spoke with the teen’s family, who said she had been a runaway for years.
The case shifted after detectives served DNA warrants and received results linking Marquis to the newborn with an extremely high probability. When reinterviewed, the teen admitted she had engaged in sexual activity with both Marquis and Cruz. She described multiple encounters inside the home and during a car ride, and said the couple had had threesome sexual encounters that had been recorded on video.
Detectives later obtained the video and used it throughout the investigation to secure a warrant for the couple’s arrest.
Marquis’s charges add to a string of cases he has faced this year. According to past arrest records, he has been taken into custody at least four times in 2025, including a June 15 incident in Coconut Creek that resulted in a domestic violence charge.
In that case, police say Marquis went to the victim’s West Atlantic Boulevard home to pick up his 5-year-old daughter, which escalated into an argument at the doorway. The victim told officers that Marquis spat in her face and pushed her into a wall. When she attempted to throw a pot at him outside, she accidentally struck a 17-year-old pregnant girl who was with Marquis at the time, the same girl who appears to be the victim in this most recent case.
Both Cruz and Marquis remain in custody.
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