BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. – A 66-year-old man from Boynton Beach has been arrested on accusations that he killed a woman who he married so she could obtain a green card and buried her body in the backyard of his home, WPBF reported.
According to Boynton Beach police, the body of Mary Stella Gomez-Mullet, 44, was found Friday night in the backyard of Roberto Colon’s home in the 100 block of Southeast 28th Court.
Police said she last had contact with someone on the afternoon of Feb. 18.
According to a police report, Colon hired Gomez-Mullet as a caretaker for his mother in Hialeah, who he said suffers from dementia. Authorities said he told them he married Gomez-Mullet weeks after meeting her so she could become a U.S. citizen, in exchange for caring for his mother.
Gomez-Mullet was eventually reported missing after friends and relatives weren’t able to contact her.
Detectives said Colon admitted to getting into an argument with the victim the day she went missing because he believed she defrauded his mother out of thousands of dollars over the span of several months, and that he fired her as a result. But he denied knowing where the victim was.
Detectives said one of the victim’s friends told them she was on the phone with Gomez-Mullet as she was driving to Colon’s house to return the items his mother gave her and at one point she heard the victim say something similar to, “No, no, no Roberto!” before the call disconnected.
The friend said it sounded like Gomez-Mullet had been attacked.
According to police, Colon consented to a search of his home on Feb. 23 and authorities found blood on the front door, as well as on the floor, wall, window and ceiling of a room that police described as an enclosed garage or workshop.
Colon claimed the blood on the front door could have been from him cutting himself while installing it, and claimed the blood in the workshop may have been from his dog, authorities said.
Crime scene investigators later confirmed that it was in fact human blood, and authorities obtained a search warrant to go back to Colon’s home.
This time, authorities said Colon called the room where the blood was found his “abattoir,” which is a French word for slaughterhouse, and that Colon told detectives that the victim was “swimming with the fishies.”
He also referred to her as a “piece of s*** b****,” authorities said.
Police said Colon taunted detectives while they were at his house, shouting “Find the body! Find the body!”
When they left, he allegedly said with a smirk, “Well, at least you didn’t find a body at my house.”
Police returned to the home yet again on Wednesday though, after they received an anonymous tip that Colon had threatened to strangle Gomez-Mullet and bury her in his backyard.
According to WPBF, Boynton Beach police arrested Colon on Friday for narcotics found inside his home during their previous search and presented him with a new search warrant focused on the backyard of his home.
This time they found human remains buried in the backyard, authorities confirmed.
A fingerprint analysis revealed that the remains were that of Gomez-Mullet.
Colon faces charges of first-degree murder, as well as possession of marijuana. He is being held in jail without bond.