Mónica Spear

She married Thomas Henry Berry in 2008. Their daughter Maya was born in October 2009. They divorced in 2012 but reports indicated they were reconciling at the time of their deaths.

On January 6, 2014, she and her ex-husband were shot during a robbery attempt on a highway in central Carabobo, Venezuela while on vacation. They were waiting for assistance after their car broke down. Their daughter Maya was shot in the leg, but recovered. She now lives with her maternal grandparents in Florida.

Mónica Spear Mootz was born October 1, 1984 in Maracaibo, Zulia, Venezuela to Rafael Spear Tudares and Ingeborg Mootz Gotera. She had four siblings: Rafael, Carolina, Javier and Ricardo.

After her mother retired from her position with an oil company in Venezuela, her family immigrated to Orlando, Florida in 2000. Her surviving family lives in Florida today.

She attended high school in the United States. She received an associate’s degree with honors from Seminole Community College in 2003 and graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2004. She initially majored in chemical engineering but later on changed to theater.

After graduating from the University of Central Florida with a degree in theater, Spear first tried her hands at modeling.

She returned to her native Venezuela in 2004 to enter the Miss Venezuela pageant. After her participation in the Miss Universe pageant in 2005, she began an acting career in television.

She did major roles in several telenovelas for RCTV in Venezuela, including ‘El Desprecio’ (2006),’Mi prima Ciela’ (2007), ‘Calle luna, Calle sol’ (2009), and ‘Que el cielo me explique’ (2010-2011). Several of her RCTV productions also played on American Spanish television networks.

She portrayed a young woman with Aspergers syndrome on Venevision telenovela, ‘La mujer perfecta’ in the fall of 2010. After her death, the telenovela re-aired as a fundraiser for an Aspergers foundation.

Near the end of her life, she began work with the Spanish-language, American based network Telemundo, performing in telenovelas ‘Flor Salvaje’ (2011-2012) and ‘Pasión prohibida’ (2013).

In 2006, she broke into Venezuela’s telenovela market playing the villainous Tamara Campos de Velandró in ‘El Despreci’o.

Her 2007 role as Graciela Andreína Zambrano Ávila, a teenager battling leukemia, in ‘Mi prima Ciel’a made her one of Venezuela’s most sought after soap opera actresses.

Her final role as Bianca Santillana in the 2013 telenovela ‘Pasión prohibida’ represented her successful transition to the United States’ based Spanish-language production company Telemundo.