EXCLUSIVE: Father of Miss Venezuela shot dead in brutal robbery vows to win custody of granddaughter, 5, and take her to the US as it is revealed brave girl 'will attend funeral'

• Maya Spear was orphaned when her mother Monica Spear Mootz and father Thomas Berry were gunned down in front of her in their broken down car in Venezuela
• Her father, Rafael, today told MailOnline he will fight to take her out of the country and to the US
• But parents of beauty queen's husband, who live in Venezuela, say plans are still to be decided
  
• Maya was also shot, but has left hospital and is expected to attend her parents' funeral after being told the shattering news
• Monica, who won the Miss Venezuela title in 2004, had joined her 39-year-old estranged husband on a drive holiday
  
• The killings have convulsed the crime-ridden country and sparked protests
• Police revealed that Spear's camerabag was today found in possession of a woman believed to be in gang behind the murders

By Paul Thompson for MailOnline and Alasdair Baverstock In Caracas, Venezuela

Published: 19:38 EST, 9 January 2014 | Updated: 17:24 EST, 12 January 2014

Monica Spear’s father today told MailOnline that he intends to fight for the custody of his five-year old granddaughter saying he wants to take her back to the US.

Rafael Spear, the father of the former Miss Venezuela murdered with her husband in a brutal street-side robbery on Monday, spoke as it emerged the little girl, Maya, has been told the shattering news and will attend her parents' funeral.

'It’s my aim to get Maya out of the country', Mr Spear said today in an interview at the couple's lying in state ceremony in Caracas’s East Cemetery. Ms Spear and her husband, Thomas Berry, will be buried side by side tomorrow.

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Despicable: Maya was also shot by the robbers who killed her mother and father in cold blood. The brave girl has now left hospital and been given the crushing news they are dead

Future: Monica's father, from Orlando, told MailOnline that he will fight to bring Maya to the US with him insisting that Venezuela is not place to bring up a child. The child's paternal grandparents live in the country, however

'Maya is my priority now and I need the Venezuelan government to help me obtain her guardianship', he stated. 'We have an agreement with the Berrys that the best for Maya is to be outside Venezuela'.

Meanwhile, Thomas Berry's father, also called Thomas, who moved from Britain to live in Venezuela thirty years ago, insists that the decision over his granddaughter’s future 'has yet to be discussed'.

'We are leaving all decisions about Maya until after the funeral proceedings', he told MailOnline. 'Such things have a time and a place and it is improper to discuss them now. The most important thing is that Maya is safe'.

Should Maya remain with her British father's parents, she will move into their house in Los Palos Grandes, a secure and clean part of Caracas.

Vow: Rafael Spear, 61, told MailOnline: 'Maya is my priority now and I need the Venezuelan government to help me obtain her guardianship'

Mourning: The couple will be laid to rest side by side because family say 'that's how they lived their lives'

Carolina Spear, sister of actress Monica Spear, stands behind her father as she mourns the departure of her sister at a cemetery in Caracas, Venezuela

Crowds: Huge numbers of people turned up to the cemetery to pay their respects. The deaths have sparked protests and convulsed the crime-ridden country

Rafael Spear, 61, who lives in Orlando, Florida, and is a project manager for Siemens said: 'I am an American citizen, my daughter was an American citizen before she was murdered, now I’m going to fight so that my granddaughter becomes an American citizen.

'This country is no place to grow up', he said, his voice choked by tears.

Maya is currently in the custody of Monica Spear’s cousins in Caracas.

While Venezuelan law states that an orphaned child’s custody is transferred to the maternal side, the fact that all of Monica Spear’s immediate family live outside the country may become problematic.

The Berrys, Maya’s paternal grandparents, have lived in Caracas for over thirty years and would be the preferred option for a government which is strongly anti-US.

The couple's five-year-old daughter Maya survived the shooting after being hit in the leg and is recovering in a Caracas hospital, although she doesn't yet know that her parents are dead

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.

'The biggest tragedy is that Maya will never get to know her parents', said Alfonso Pedemonte, one of Thomas Berry’s closest friends. 'They were perfect parents. Their families must now think about what’s best for her'.

On Wednesday the brother of Ms Spear, Ricardo, said the family had yet to tell Maya that her mother and father, were dead. 

But on her release from hospital the bewildered little girl was told the shattering news.

The beauty queen and Mr Berry will be buried side by side on Friday in a funeral expected to attract thousands of mourners, MailOnline has learned.

Family members and friends said the couple were 'still very much in love' and after talks decided they should rest together.

Close friends Luis Navarro said: 'They were together in life and they will be together in death. It is the family wishes that they be buried side by side.'

Hundreds of weeping fans of the former Miss Venezuela silently filed past her open coffin at the city's eastern cemetery on Thursday during a public viewing.

Horrific: Robbers shot through the car windscreen when the terrified family locked themselves in

Brutal: The gang, known as the 'Los Rapiditos', wasted no time in gunning down the couple in front of their daughter

Theft: Police revealed today they recovered Spear's camera bag from a female member of the alleged gang

Trap: Police believe the killers deliberately left something in the road to cause a puncture on their car

The oak coffins containing Monica, 29 , and her 39-year-old husband stood side by side adored with floral tributes.

A colour photograph from the couple's wedding day with Thomas scooping his stunning bride up in the air was placed between the two coffins.

As family members solemnly walked into the room they were met with hugs and kisses. Many could be see openly weeping after viewing the two victims.

Thomas's father emerged briefly from the glass room with his wife Kate.

Her eyes eyes were red rimmed from weeping and she buried her face in the shoulder of friend who had come to console her.

Ricardo, 22, said the family were overwhelmed by the love and support they had received.

He said he knew his sister was popular in Venezuela but was surprised by the the number of people who turned up for the public viewing.

'It just shows you how much Monica was loved by the people here. She loved this country, and they loved her.'

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.

Love: Relatives said they told Monica to return to the US. but said she was so in love with the country and wanted to teach her daughter about it

'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 that 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.

As family members made final preparations for the funeral new details emerged about the gang alleged to have carried out the brutal killing.

The only woman among the six arrested was found to have Spear's camera bag in her possession.

The female bandit is known as Eva "Guns" Mejias.

Authorities were quizzing Mejias and six men aged from 15 to 26.

The group which believed to have carried out the murder acted from a building where they were squatters known as El Churro, a notoriously dangerous government project in the region.

Residents of El Cambur, the village close to the squatters den, have told local press that their lives had been ruined by the invasion of the building by the dangerous gang a few years ago.

'Before we could go where we wanted, but since they moved in and established a "Red Zone'.

'I have to take a different route home at night to avoid it?, one resident of the sector told El Nacional.

'There are police and military patrols on the highway, said  Mary Gonzalez, another resident of El Cambur. But there is no phone signal, a lot of places to hide and although everyone knows where the gang is squatting no one has done anything about it'.

People gather in a demonstration in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, to protest over the death of Monica Spear

A still from a short film showing the actress riding before she blew a kiss to the camera on the day she died

'It's only now that this tragedy has occurred that they have done anything.'

The couple and Maya are believed to have been targeted by the robbers after they left an obstacle in the road, causing the car to tire to puncture. A tow truck arrived and was being loaded onto it when the armed gang approached.

It is believed the couple locked them inside and the gang fired through the windows, killing them and injuring Maya.

The only two witnesses to the crime are two men from the road rescue team who fled for their lives as the couple were in the car.

The deaths of the couple has led to the country's President to meet with regional leaders to discuss ways of combatting the crime wave that has plagued the south American country.

President Nicolas Maduro, who has been criticised for failing to halt the 24,000 murders a year suggested Wednesday that the murder of soap star Monica Spear and her ex-husband was a targeted hit and not a random robbery gone wrong.

'That assassination seems more like a contract killing,' he said.

'We have identified those involved in this assassination and we are going to look for them.'

Maduro provided no evidence that that Spears was the victim of a murder-for-hire.