[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
A Florida woman is being accused of murder in the stabbing death of her 79-year-old roommate — and cops say she allegedly tried to clean key evidence off her body with Diet Mountain Dew.
According to multiple media reports, 35-year-old Nichole Maks has been booked into Volusia County Jail on a charge of first-degree murder. The case has been percolating for a while; the murder Maks is accused of committing occurred back in early July when police officers discovered the body of 79-year-old Michael Cerasoli in a Daytona Beach home.
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First responders were called to a house fire on the night of July 1, per FOX 35 News. After firefighters doused the flames, cops went in and located the body of a man later identified as Cerasoli. He had been stabbed in the torso. Next to him in the room where he died were two cell phones and a bloody knife, according to CBS Miami.
Police started looking into Cerasoli’s known friends and acquaintances, and learned that he’d been living with Maks. Wanting to talk to her considering her roommate was just murdered, cops tracked Nichole down the next morning in the neighboring town of Holly Hill. There, they discovered Maks had both a hammer and a bloody knife in her possession, as well as “blood on her leg,” according to CBS Miami.
With their interest piqued, cops questioned Maks about her identity. She reportedly “gave conflicting answers” about who she was and where she lived, according to the police affidavit in the case as seen by WESH 2 News. When police told the woman they’d test her DNA to confirm her identity, and that they also wanted to test the source of the blood on her leg, she asked police for a drink.
They handed her a bottle of Diet Mountain Dew, when — right in front of the cops — Maks allegedly poured the soda onto her leg!!! Per the arrest affidavit, police say the Diet Mountain Dew shower was “an attempt to wash the blood from her leg” before tests could be completed.
Thankfully, cops were able to stop her before she washed it all off. They took swabs of the blood on Maks’ leg, and other blood on the knife handle and blade that was in her possession when she was taken into custody. This week, testing came back confirming that DNA from both Maks and Cerasoli were on the knife, as well as Cerasoli’s DNA in the blood on Maks’ leg.
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Now, Maks is being held without bond in the Volusia County Jail. She has been charged with tampering with evidence for her reported Diet Mountain Dew stunt, to go along with the first-degree murder rap and a third charge of resisting arrest with violence.
Here’s more on the investigation (below):
Jeez…
We send our condolences to Cerasoli’s family, friends, and loved ones.
[Image via Fox 35 Orlando/YouTube/Volusia County Jail]