Husband who bragged cops wouldn't find wife's body charged with murder after remains found

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Chris Persaud - Palm Beach Post




BOYNTON BEACH — A husband accused of killing his wife, and who taunted police over the search for her body, was arrested Friday when investigators found her remains in his backyard.

Police booked Roberto Colon, 66, into jail after midnight Saturday, charged with the first-degree murder of his wife, Mary Stella Gomez-Mulett, who was 44.

Investigators found the remains of Gomez-Mulett on Friday buried in Colon's backyard, a week after investigators say he bragged, "At least you didn't find a body," during a search of his house.

Gomez-Mulett was an immigrant working as a caretaker for Colon's mother, who suffered from dementia, and in exchange, he married her weeks after they had met so she could obtain U.S. citizenship, he told police.

But Colon had grown angry with Gomez-Mulett, accusing her of "defrauding" his mother out of thousands of dollars, police say.

At about 2 p.m. on Feb. 18, Gomez-Mulett drove a Toyota — which Colon said she "fraudulently" obtained through his mother — to Colon's house to drop it off, along with a purse his mother gave her, and other items, because she wanted nothing more to do with him, a friend of Gomez-Mulett told police.

The friend said she and Gomez-Mulett had been talking on the phone as Gomez-Mulett pulled into Colon's driveway, and just before she hung up, she yelled "No, no, no Roberto!”

The call disconnected moments later, and subsequent calls to her phone went straight to voicemail.

Later that afternoon, someone called police to report finding a bloody purse, which patrol officers located about a mile from Colon's house, which is on Southeast 28th Court in a neighborhood south of Southwest 23rd Avenue, between Seacrest Boulevard and the Florida East Coast Railway tracks.



In the purse, investigators found documents showing Gomez-Mulett lived with Colon's mother in Hialeah, plus a broken white rosary chain with a crucifix. A family member of Gomez-Mulett showed detectives a picture of her holding a purse and wearing a rosary necklace. Both looked "very similar" to the purse and rosary that had been found, police said.

Police searched Colon's house Feb. 24, finding red marks on the front door that lab tests later confirmed to be bloodstains. Colon claimed he cut himself a month earlier while installing the door.

Crime scene investigators also found blood spatter on the walls, floor and ceiling of Colon's garage, which he later described as his "abbatoir," or slaughterhouse. He told them he never noticed the blood before. It must have come from his dog, he said, who was bleeding five months ago and shook in his cage.

It was human blood, lab tests confirmed.

Investigators returned Feb. 26 to search Colon's house again. He taunted them, yelling "Find the body, find the body," police say. Investigators found marijuana. When they left, police say, Colon smirked and said "Well, at least you didn't find a body at my house."

[lost in melb.]

[PorkChopSandwiches]

oops