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A 1995 photo of Maria Telles-Gonzalez and a man named Carlos, and his age-progressed photo of what he’d look like today. -
A 1995 photo of Maria Telles-Gonzalez and a man named Carlos, and his age-progressed photo of what he’d look like today.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Beaufort County (S.C.) Sheriff ’s Office are looking for the public’s help in identifying the suspect in the 1995 murder of Kissimmee resident Maria Telles-Gonzalez.
A man named “Carlos” is thought to have been dating Maria at the time of her disappearance.
Maria was 36 years old at the time of her death. A wife and mother of three, she was never reported missing. Her remains were found in South Carolina in 1996, but they were not identified until December 2022 after new DNA tests and genealogy research were done which matched and identified Maria’s son, allowing South Carolina’s cold case investigator Bob Bromage to make the connection.
“Maria had returned home from Puerto Rico, from visiting her family on the night before she disappeared,” Bromage said when announcing the discovery. “She came back with a suitcase, stayed the night in the family home, and was present in the home with the husband when the children went to school. All three children went to school that day. The mother was there. The father was there. They returned from school. She was gone, and the suitcase. Her vehicle was still there.”
This was in mid-May 1995. Although it would not be identified for 27 years, her body was found just days later, on May 24, 1995, in a drainage ditch in Yemassee, S.C. She was found wearing only underwear and had been strangled. No personal effects were found and efforts to identify her locally proved fruitless. The case went cold until the new DNA technology was utilized. It is now believed the suspect murdered Maria in Florida and then transported her body to South Carolina.
With the identification of the remains nine months ago, new leads were developed that identify a possible witness known only as Carlos, who is thought to have been dating Maria at the time of her disappearance. A picture of Carlos with Maria from 1995 is being distributed, along with age-progression images, in hopes that someone might be able to identify him. Carlos is Hispanic and believed to be between 5’8” – 5’10” tall. People familiar with Carlos reported he spoke Spanish and very good English.
If anyone has information about the murder of Maria Telles-Gonzalez or the identification or whereabouts of Carlos, please contact Beaufort County cold case investigator Bob Bromage at 843-816-8013.
