Top inset: Mimose Dulcio (GoFundMe). Bottom inset: Jose Luis Pacheco (Broward County Sheriff). Background: The location in Florida where Dulcio’s body was found (WFOR).
A Florida man convicted of killing his wife amid a messy divorce and leaving her body in the woods was sentenced to 55 years in prison.
Jose Luis Pacheco, 38, learned his fate on Thursday after pleading guilty to second-degree murder charges in the killing of his estranged wife Mimose Dulcio, 39. Broward County Circuit Judge Frank Ledee refused the defendant’s initial plea of no contest after hearing powerful victim impact statements.
“You’re a monster … murderer … manipulator … a narcissist … and you don’t deserve to live,” Dulcio’s sister, Seminta Dulcio, told the defendant, local ABC affiliate WPLG reported.
Added the victim’s brother Enel Dulcio: “I hope one day, when all this is done, you look back and feel the stain of your actions.”
Andre Cross, a colleague of the victim, added, “You need to suffer because Mimose did not deserve what you did to her.”
Dulcio was last seen on Nov. 10, 2022, at around 5:30 p.m. at her residence in unincorporated Central Broward, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
A missing person alert was issued for her two days later. Pacheco told investigators he had not seen or heard from her in a couple of days, and they had been in the process of getting a divorce.
Seminta Dulcio told local NBC affiliate WTVJ that she called her sister but never heard back. No one could get a hold of Pacheco, so family members went to her home to check on her, the station reported.
“I bust through her door. She’s not in there. We looked around, we just can’t find Mimose,” Seminta Dulcio told the station.
Inside the home, family members said they found blood on a cracked TV screen, the victim’s smashed cellphones stuffed between the couch cushions, and broken surveillance cameras and windows, local CBS affiliate WFOR reported, citing an arrest report.
The victim’s sister said Pacheco, who had been living in a separate room in the home to save up money to move out, told her that “Mimi is not home.”
Seminta Dulcio said he was upset she had been on a dating website, WFOR reported, citing an arrest report. Pacheco drove off after arguing with Seminta Dulcio, the outlet reported.
Authorities got a warrant and searched the couple’s home and their vehicle and found evidence suggesting Dulcio had been murdered in the home and her body had been put into the couple’s car and disposed of, authorities said.
Pacheco was arrested on Nov. 14, 2022.
A GoFundMe page set up by the victim’s colleagues said she was a treasured member of the city of Fort Lauderdale’s Development Services Department who ” worked tirelessly every day to serve her community while putting a smile on anyone who interacted with her.”
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