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SALT LAKE CITY — Her family is convinced that Melinda Carley, 48, was murdered two months ago.
Authorities in Arizona and Utah think the questions surrounding her death likely can only be answered by one man, and authorities have reason to believe could be in the Salt Lake Valley.
On Aug. 1 police found Carley's body in Bisbee, Ariz., less than 10 miles from the Mexico border. Carley was in her bathtub under five feet of clothing and plastic.
It was the end of a missing persons case that had been ongoing for more than a month. Investigators say her body had been there for weeks. Her live-in boyfriend, Paul Rosas, 56, is the only person of interest in the case.
Venise Gomez alleged, "What he had done was he had put some kind of liquid in the bathtub and other powders and kitty litter and all kinds of stuff to absorb odors, and kept layering and layering, forming a seal around her body so it wouldn't smell."
Police say in the weeks before the discovery, Rosas had been living in the apartment with Carley's body and slowly selling off her personal possessions while lying to family members about where she was. Now, the body has been found and Rosas is gone.
Police in Arizona had been chasing Rosas for the past five weeks. Their leads had gone cold until an unlikely scenario presented itself in West Valley City, Utah.
A credit card linked to Rosas was used at a Vietnamese food store on Redwood Road just after 3:30 on Monday afternoon. Authorities from Arizona alerted West Valley City authorities.
So far, however, they have not been able to find Rosas.
