PC-GUY
1
Nice friend.
Paul William Mazzei wasn't much of a houseguest, police said.
The 45-year-old Canadian citizen killed his Vallejo host earlier this year, buried him in the backyard of his lifelong home, and then spent several weeks spending a "substantial" portion of his nest egg on trips to Texas, New York and Puerto Vallarta, police said Tuesday.
Authorities arrested Mazzei on Monday at the Buffalo Niagra International Airport in Cheektowaga, N.Y., on suspicion of murdering Michael Axhelm, 63, a retired Internal Revenue Service employee.
He had a ticket to Las Vegas, police said. Now he'll be brought back to Solano County to face charges.
Police had been looking for Mazzei since Saturday, when they unearthed a decomposed body -- believed to be Axhelm's -- from the side yard of the Los Gatos Avenue home that Axhelm inherited from his family.
Police officials on Tuesday said they know very little about Mazzei, except that he traveled frequently and had made visits to Axhelm -- who was unmarried and had no children -- for about 10 years.
But neighbors got increasingly suspicious during Mazzei's most recent visit, said Vallejo police Lt. Lori Lee.
Someone was seen digging, and then filling, a hole in the yard. One neighbor asked Mazzei about Axhelm's whereabouts and was told the older man had traveled to Bali to get married.
With no sign of Axhelm since mid-January and chatter increasing in the neighborhood, someone finally reported him missing last Wednesday, Lee said.
Then on Saturday, after determining that Mazzei had been accessing his host's bank accounts for months, police served a search warrant at the house and found the corpse.
Police Lt. Ron Becker said the body had a "great degree of decomposition" and had been dead at least two months. The county coroner found evidence that the death was a homicide, he said.
Police are still trying to confirm through dental records that the body belongs to Axhelm but have yet to find his dentist.
SFgate.com
Paul William Mazzei wasn't much of a houseguest, police said.
The 45-year-old Canadian citizen killed his Vallejo host earlier this year, buried him in the backyard of his lifelong home, and then spent several weeks spending a "substantial" portion of his nest egg on trips to Texas, New York and Puerto Vallarta, police said Tuesday.
Authorities arrested Mazzei on Monday at the Buffalo Niagra International Airport in Cheektowaga, N.Y., on suspicion of murdering Michael Axhelm, 63, a retired Internal Revenue Service employee.
He had a ticket to Las Vegas, police said. Now he'll be brought back to Solano County to face charges.
Police had been looking for Mazzei since Saturday, when they unearthed a decomposed body -- believed to be Axhelm's -- from the side yard of the Los Gatos Avenue home that Axhelm inherited from his family.
Police officials on Tuesday said they know very little about Mazzei, except that he traveled frequently and had made visits to Axhelm -- who was unmarried and had no children -- for about 10 years.
But neighbors got increasingly suspicious during Mazzei's most recent visit, said Vallejo police Lt. Lori Lee.
Someone was seen digging, and then filling, a hole in the yard. One neighbor asked Mazzei about Axhelm's whereabouts and was told the older man had traveled to Bali to get married.
With no sign of Axhelm since mid-January and chatter increasing in the neighborhood, someone finally reported him missing last Wednesday, Lee said.
Then on Saturday, after determining that Mazzei had been accessing his host's bank accounts for months, police served a search warrant at the house and found the corpse.
Police Lt. Ron Becker said the body had a "great degree of decomposition" and had been dead at least two months. The county coroner found evidence that the death was a homicide, he said.
Police are still trying to confirm through dental records that the body belongs to Axhelm but have yet to find his dentist.
SFgate.com