DNA from discarded cans leads to arrest of Texas man for Florida murder of woman stabbed 16 times

LUBBOCK, TEXAS: Authorities in Texas used DNA obtained from discarded cans of iced tea to link a man to a brutal cold-case murder in Florida.

Yesnin Salvador Bonilla-Iscoa, 30, now faces first-degree murder charges in connection with the fatal stabbing of 52-year-old Maria De Los Angeles Paulino, an alleged 16 times.

Boyfriend uses Find My iPhone app to locate Maria De Los Angeles Paulino's lifeless body

The tragic incident unfolded when Paulino's boyfriend discovered her lifeless body with "obvious signs of trauma" in her car in Orange County, Florida, prompting a 911 call around 12:19 pm on May 10, 2023. Concerned after not hearing from Paulino, her sister had contacted the boyfriend, leading to the discovery.

The boyfriend, utilizing the Find My iPhone app, located her cellphone in northern Orange County, where he found her dead.

Maria De Los Angeles Paulino was stabbed 16 times

Deputies, responding to the scene, were alerted to a bystander's report of a bloody knife wrapped in a cloth nearby. Upon investigation, they determined the knife had been used to stab Paulino a shocking 16 times, with traces of her blood present.

Security camera footage from Paulino's apartment complex indicated she left around 3:18 am on the day of the murder.

Analysis of her recovered cellphone revealed a call at 3:11 am, with Paulino returning it approximately 25 minutes later—her last activity before her tragic demise. The call was traced back to Bonilla-Iscoa, saved under the contact "Abaca Rd Y Rose Av," near the location where she was found dead.

Yesnin Salvador Bonilla-Iscoa's phone records pin him to the crime scene

Following the murder, Bonilla-Iscoa relocated to Lubbock, Texas, where local authorities, conducting surveillance, gathered discarded aluminum iced tea cans to obtain his DNA.

In a significant breakthrough, a lab test on November 21 confirmed a match between the DNA from the cans and the DNA found on the murder weapon.

Further, detectives also scrutinized Bonilla-Iscoa's phone records, placing him in the area at the time of the murder, though the motive remains shrouded, as per Law & Crime. Bonilla-Iscoa was subsequently arrested and extradited to Florida, where he currently resides in the Orange County Jail without bond.