A Florida man who challenged police to “find the body” at his Boynton Beach home was arrested Saturday when his wife’s remains were found in the back garden.
The victim, Mary Stella Gómez-Mullet, was missing on Feb. 20, when a friend called to tell police he had last spoken to her on the phone two days earlier. Later, the friend revealed that he had heard Gómez-Mullet shouting, “No, no, not Roberto!” and calling her friend’s name before the call was disconnected, according to a police report obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel and local WPTV news station. When he tried to call back, the phone went straight to your voicemail.
That same day, police received the report of a bloody handbag located less than a mile from Colon’s home. Later, family members confirmed that the items, including a crucifix strung on a white rosary chain, belonged to Gómez-Mullet. According to the police report, “all the relatives and friends were firm that something must have happened to Gómez.”
Gomez-Mullet, 45, and Colon, 66, were married in January in Delray Beach Court, according to WPTV. Colon described the marriage to detectives as a sort of quid pro quo arrangement, in which Gómez-Mullet received U.S. citizenship in exchange for caring for Colon’s mother, who has dementia.
Apparently, however, the arrangement had begun to disintegrate. Colon accused Gómez-Mullet of swindling his mother for several thousand dollars and told police they were arguing about it when he got home on Feb. 18 (his friend later told police that Gómez-Mullet went to Colon’s house to drop off the items he said he stole and cut off contact with him.) Colon stated that he left home to go on an appointment with a doctor and when he returned , Gómez-Mullet had left.
When detectives arrived at Colon’s apartment on Feb. 24 to do a follow-up interview, they found that most of his text messages and call history had been deleted, according to the police report. They also noticed several red marks on the front door and what looked like bloodstains on the floor, walls, window and even the ceiling of their workshop. Colon claimed that the splashes of blood in his workshop must have come from his dog; it was later confirmed to be human.
Two days later, when detectives came to search his apartment, Colon was combative and challenged them to “find the body, find the body.” According to the police report, he described his workshop as a “slaughterhouse” or a place where animals are slaughtered and his wife as a “piece of shit bitch.” When the detectives left, he smiled and said, “At least you didn’t find any bodies in my house.”
But detectives returned on March 5 to arrest Colon, not for the murder of his wife, but for possession of marijuana found in his apartment during the previous search. Two days earlier, a source had informed police that he had heard Colon and Gómez-Mullet arguing weeks before, and that Colon threatened to strangle her to death and bury her in the back garden.
Indeed, when detectives swept Colon’s apartment again, they found human remains in the backyard, which were positively identified as belonging to Gomez-Mullet on Friday.
Colon was taken to the Boynton Beach police department to be prosecuted, but not before detectives heard him say to a friend, “There’s something they can’t do, they can’t put as they say, Humpty Dumpty’s us “.
Colon was admitted to the Palm Beach County Main Prison Friday on charges of first-degree murder. A Colon lawyer could not be identified immediately.