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lovesick Southern California man was convicted Tuesday of killing his former roommate, a beautiful Army veteran and college student, last year after the 36-year-old woman ordered him to move out of their shared Orange apartment.
The badly decomposing body of Maribel Ramos, 36, was found in a remote Orange County, Calif.
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after she mysteriously went missing two weeks earlier. Her former roommate, Kwang Choi (KC) Joy, 55, wasn’t shy about speaking out about the disappearance of his “friend,” telling local media he missed Ramos and wanted her home.
“She’s my only family I have,” he said then
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“She’s my best friend. And I want her to come back.”
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prosecutors say it was all a ruse, that Joy killed Ramos after she failed to return his love and ordered him out of their apartment. The man had surgery to look younger and even paid for Ramos to take a cruise in an attempt to woo the brunette.
"Maribel was his life, and the opportunity for him to be with the love of his life was coming to an end," Orange County Deputy District Attorney Scott Simmons told the jury last week
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Police initially said there were no signs of foul play, but family and friends said it was out of character for her to suddenly cut ties with them. She was just a few weeks from graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in criminal justice.
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who was honorably discharged in 2008, was last seen alive turning in a rent check on May 2, 2013.
Ramos had left behind her car and her dog, a Chihuahua mix named Mia, a constant companion. It appeared that she still had her cell phone and wallet.
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was reported missing after she failed to show up for a softball game and a speaking engagement at a veterans group.
Cops quickly suspected Joy, who had cuts across his arms that prosecutors at trial said came during a fatal struggle with Ramos.
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more damning were Joy’s Internet searches at a local library for “How long does it take a human body to decay?” and a map search of Modjeska Canyon, where he’d stashed the woman’s body.
“The defendant did a virtual drive-by of where he dumped the body,”
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But Joy’s public defender said Joy had not killed the woman but rather buried her after she died during a medical episode.
A cause of death has never been determined.
“A crime will be proven here,” attorney Adam Vining told the court
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“And the crime that will be proven here is improper disposal of a body.”
Joy was found guilty of second-degree murder and faces up to 25 years in prison.
