A woman was stabbed eight times, wrapped in a floral bedsheet and then discarded in a canal near the Kings Point community west of Delray Beach.
Detectives found her decomposing body there one week ago. On Monday, they arrested a suspect in her murder.
Christopher Soto, 23, faces charges of first-degree murder, tampering with evidence and making a false report.
On June 25, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office detectives found the woman’s body partially submerged on the south bank of a canal near the 5000 block of Atlantic Avenue, according to the probable cause affidavit.
An autopsy revealed that she had been stabbed eight times, according to the affidavit. Three of the stab wounds penetrated the heart, killing her.
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The Sheriff’s Office did not identify the woman, as her family has invoked Marsy’s Law, a voter-approved constitutional amendment that allows crime victims’ identities to be shielded from the public.
On June 27, detectives received a tip from the victim’s mother who lives in the Kings Point community, according to the affidavit. The mother told them that she last saw her daughter in a similar outfit to the one detectives had shared in the media.
The victim’s mother said that Soto’s girlfriend and an acquaintance of the victim’s, Jennifer Pumariega, had stopped by the house to drop off the victim’s purse without explaining why she had the purse or where the victim had gone, according to the affidavit.
Soto later called the victim’s mother and gave her a “confusing story” about what happened to the victim. When she told him that the victim would never leave her things in the care of others, he could not explain why he had her things or what had happened to her.
Detectives went to the Kings Point home where Pumariega lives with another resident, Jocelyn Lowell.
Lowell told detectives that the victim had shown up at their door on June 21, asking to stay for a few nights, according to the affidavit. Not wanting to see her “sleeping in the streets,” Lowell allowed her to stay.
When Pumariega left for work the morning of June 23, she saw the victim sleeping on the couch and Soto sleeping on a recliner, according to the affidavit. She left for her job at a Starbucks in Delray Beach, where Soto was supposed to pick her up at noon. He never came, instead telling her in a text message that he had to help a stranded motorist.
When she checked his Ford Escape’s location, it put him at the dead end of Sims Road, within 100 feet of where the victim’s body was found.
Detectives later obtained surveillance video that captured the Ford Escape traveling towards that location.
Pumariega took a Lyft home, where she saw Soto in the car, according to the affidavit. She got into the car, admonishing Soto for not picking her up, when she discovered a garbage bag with a foul smell emanating from it. She asked him to remove it from the car, then walked into the house. The floor was wet and the smell of bleach permeated the home, according to records.
Soto never cleaned the house, especially with bleach, Pumariega told detectives.
Finally, she entered the bathroom, where she saw a shirt with what looked like blood on it on the shower floor, according to the affidavit. He told her it was the stranded motorist’s and promised to get rid of it.
Later on, Pumariega also found a knife and the victim’s purse in the Ford Escape, the affidavit says. She confronted Soto multiple times about the victim’s disappearance. He denied any involvement but did at one point admit to having sex with her.
Pumariega also asked him about her bed sheet, which was missing from her bed; he told her he would return it, according to the affidavit. Detectives later showed Pumariega the floral sheet wrapped around the body. Through tears, she confirmed that the bed sheet was hers.
Detectives obtained a search warrant for the Ford Escape, where they found blood soaked throughout. The DNA came back as a match for the victim’s.
In an interview with detectives, Soto said he had taken a nap while Pumariega was at work, then helped the stranded motorist. He denied cleaning the apartment with bleach.
Soto’s first appearance was set for Aug. 24 in Palm Beach County court.