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'They Can’t Put Humpty Dumpty Back Together Again': Florida Man Accused Of Killing New Wife, Burying Body In Yard
Roberto Colon allegedly told detectives that his wife, Mary Stella Gomez-Mulett, was “swimming with the fishes” as they searched his Florida home.
A Florida man has been accused of killing his new wife and then burying her body in the backyard of his home —then telling police she was “swimming with the fishes,” according to a probable cause statement in the case obtained by Oxygen.com.
Roberto Colon, 66, is now facing charges of premeditated first-degree murder after authorities discovered the remains of his wife, Mary Stella Gomez-Mulett, 45, buried on the property of his Boynton Beach home. He is also now facing a marijuana possession charge.
Colon allegedly told investigators that he had married Gomez-Mulett just weeks after meeting her in a quid pro quo arrangement; she would gain U.S. citizenship in exchange for taking care of his mother, who he said has dementia.
But the arrangement quickly soured after Colon accused Gomez-Mulett of defrauding his mother of several thousand dollars over the course of a few months, according to the probable cause statement.
Police said Gomez-Mulett disappeared on Feb. 18 around 2 p.m., after she told a friend during a phone conversation that she was driving to Colon’s home to drop off a car that he had accused her of taking, and to return other miscellaneous items; she'd said that she didn’t want anything to do with him any longer. The friend later told police that the call ended as Gomez-Mulett was pulling up to Colon's home. She allegedly heard her friend say, “No, no, no Roberto!” before the line went dead.
Police said the woman reported that it sounded as though her friend had been attacked. She then tried to call her back several times but never got an answer. She also reported that she'd gone to Gomez-Mulett's home the following day, but she was not there.
Colon allegedly told Boynton Beach Police that Gomez-Mulett had come to his house on Feb. 18 and they'd gotten into an argument. He told them that he fired her and she left the property before he went to a doctor’s appointment that day, police said.
The same day she disappeared, a concerned citizen discovered a bloody purse containing broken white rosary beads — similar to those Gomez-Mulett was seen wearing in a recent picture — about a mile from Colon’s residence, according to the statement.
A few days later, during a follow-up visit, police said Colon claimed that while Gomez-Mulett had been on his property she had bumped into a wall, and her phone's battery had popped out. He told police that the two had planned to talk more after his doctor's appointment, but when he returned, she was gone. He agreed to let police search his home, vehicle, phone and he provided DNA, authorities said.
Detectives said they noticed blood on the front door of his home. Colon allegedly told the investigators that he must have cut himself while installing the door about a month earlier.
Investigators also found blood on the floor, wall, and window in an enclosed workshop or garage of the home. They said Colon told them he had never noticed the blood, and thought that it might have gotten onto the walls when his dog was injured about five months earlier and may have shaken the blood onto the wall from his kennel. However, Colon also previously said the dog had died in the room years earlier. Six dogs were buried in the backyard of the property, he told investigators.
However, police said crime scene investigators determined that the blood had belonged to a human. They returned to the home an additional time on Feb. 26 to serve a search warrant at the property. While investigators combed through the home, police said Colon “engaged detectives in conversation,” allegedly telling them that Gomez-Mulett was “swimming with the fishes” and referring to her as a “piece of s—t b---h.”
He also yelled, “Find the body, find the body,” authorities said in the probable cause statement.
"Well, at least you didn’t find a body at my house,” he remarked as they concluded their search, authorities said.
After interviewing another person connected to the case, police learned that Colon had made prior comments about burying his wife in the backyard.
Police returned to the property on Friday with a warrant to search the backyard. It was then that they took Colon into custody for possession of marijuana. At one point he was overheard telling a friend, “there’s one thing they can’t do, they can’t put, what’s his name, Humpty Dumpty back together again,” according to the probable cause statement.
Colon was also overheard allegedly saying “There’s really nothing they can take from my house, you know. It’s no use to them in prosecution. Except parts and s—t,” before he started to laugh, authorities said.
Gomez-Mulett’s remains were discovered during Friday's search.
Colon’s neighbors told local station WPBF that he was a quiet man.
“Everyone is surprised,” Dieusel Seide said. “It’s something we do not expect to happen in this neighborhood because this part of Boynton Beach is very quiet. Everybody knows everybody.”
Colon is being held without bond on the murder charge, according to the news outlet. His next court appearance is scheduled for April 5.
