It wasn’t a DNA match or a new piece of forensic evidence that finally broke open an eight-year-old murder mystery in Arizona – it was a message sent through a GoFundMe page.
That online tip led investigators to the man police say stabbed 25-year-old Evin Paulos in Phoenix more than 30 times before vanishing across the border to Mexico back in 2017.
On Monday, Phoenix police announced the arrest of 34-year-old Michael Anthony Arredondo, bringing hopes of long-awaited justice to Paulos’ family.
Police say Paulos and Arredondo were friends and traveling together when a fight broke out inside their vehicle on June 3, 2017. The altercation spilled onto the street, where Arredondo allegedly stabbed Paulos multiple times before fleeing.
“We learned shortly after the incident occurred that he fled to California,” Det. Dominick Roestenberg said about Arredondo. “He spent a short time there and eventually fled to Mexico, where he’s been staying for the last eight years.”
But for those eight years, there were no answers.
“It’s like being stuck in a room,” Paulos’ sister Eviein Paulos said at the press conference on Monday. “It’s black. You have no answers, nowhere to go, no nothing. It’s just feeling empty.”
Then came an unexpected break for the family — a message from a stranger in Mexico who claimed Arredondo was living in the country. When Paulos’ mother received the email, she worried it might be a scam, Eviein explained.
Eviein was also hesitant about the tip, so she reached out to the Mexican citizen and asked for proof.
“I told him [the Mexican citizen], ‘Please, I don’t know if this is a scam or not. Can you send me some kind of evidence, send me a picture?’” Eviein said. “And it was him [Arredondo]. He was just livin’ life for eight years.”
Eviein said she wasn’t sure how the man found out about her brother’s case and it remains unclear how exactly he knew about Arredondo, but according to records obtained by AZCentral, Paulos’ told police that Arredondo would often brag about his criminal past.
After his arrest, Arredondo was extradited to the United States and reportedly admitted to stabbing Paulos. But specific details about the stabbing were not released, and the motive is unclear.
“There had to be some rage involved,” Roestenberg added, “He wasn’t really able to explain why.”
Mexican authorities worked with the Phoenix Police Department, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to locate and extradite Arredondo back to the United States.
“I think it sends a strong message out to the community that even with the passage of time, we’re still looking for you, we’re still hunting you down,” Roestenberg said. “Justice is going to take its course.”
For Paulos’ family, they still want to know why.
“We know the who, the where, the how,” Eviein Paulos said. “We just don’t know the why.”
Eviein, who describes her brother as “generous and one-of-a-kind,” said they are hoping this will give them the peace to move on.
“It hasn’t been happy for a very long time, and this is something that’s very good for us,” she said. “We can kinda close it and move on.”
Arredondo is being held on murder charges with bond set at $1.5 million.
