Tip on GoFundMe leads to murder suspect’s arrest 8 years after deadly stabbing

PHOENIX (KTVK/KPHO/Gray News) - An arrest in a deadly stabbing that happened eight years ago came after someone recognized the suspect through a GoFundMe campaign and reached out to the victim’s family.

Phoenix police held a news conference Monday regarding the arrest of 34-year-old Michael Anthony Arredondo for the alleged murder of 25-year-old Evin Paulos, who was found dead on June 3, 2017.

Police say the two men were friends or acquaintances traveling together when a fight broke out in their vehicle. That fight continued outside of the car, where Arredondo reportedly stabbed Evin Paulos more than 30 times.

“We learned shortly after the incident occurred that he [Arredondo] fled to California,” Detective Dominick Roestenberg said. “He spent a short time there and eventually fled to Mexico, where he’s been staying for the last eight years.”

For Evin Paulos’ sister, Eviein Paulos, that meant eight years of silence, eight years of wondering why.

“It’s like being stuck in a room. It’s black. You have no answers, nowhere to go, no nothing. It’s just feeling empty,” she said.

Eventually, a Mexican citizen, who learned of Arredondo’s alleged involvement in the crime through a GoFundMe created after Evin Paulos’ death, reached out to the family.

“I told him [the citizen], ‘Please, I don’t know if this is a scam or not. Can you send me some kind of evidence, send me a picture?’” Eviein Paulos said. “And it was him [Arredondo]. He was just livin’ life for eight years.”

Mexican authorities worked with the Phoenix Police Department, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to find and extradite Arredondo back to the United States.

“I think it sends a strong message out to the community that even with the passage of time, we’re still looking for you, we’re still hunting you down,” Roestenberg said. ”Justice is going to take its course."

Every day, Eviein Paulos wears her brother’s ring with a necklace that has his name and picture.

“It’s faded out. It’s been eight years. But on the back, it says, ‘In our hearts, always and forever,’” she said.

Still, she chooses to remember Evin Paulos as he lived and not how he was taken.

“My brother is one-of-a-kind. Literally, anything you wanted, he would be there,” she said. “He [the suspect] gave my brother a one-way ticket to heaven.”

Eviein Paulos says she will forever remember her brother as a giving man who she helped raise.

“It hasn’t been happy for a very long time, and this is something that’s very good for us,” she said. “We can kinda close it and move on.”

But the question that started it all still lingers.

“We know the who, the where, the how,” she said. “We just don’t know the why.”

After his arrest, Arredondo reportedly admitted to stabbing Evin Paulos. Specific details regarding the stabbing or interview were not released, citing an active investigation.

“There had to be some rage involved,” Roestenberg said. “He wasn’t really able to explain why.”

Arredondo is being held on murder charges. His bond was set at $1.5 million.