{"id":321732,"date":"2026-06-27T11:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T11:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/321732\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T11:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T11:54:16","slug":"bloodstained-hotel-room-leads-to-murder-charge-in-death-of-elderly-florida-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/321732\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloodstained hotel room leads to murder charge in death of elderly Florida woman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (CBS12)  \u2014 An elderly Florida woman was found dead Thursday morning in a hotel room stained with blood at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ihg.com\/holidayinnexpress\/hotels\/us\/en\/reservation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Holiday Inn Express<\/a>, wrapped in a blanket, sheets and towels.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pinellassheriff.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the Pinellas County Sheriff&#8217;s Office<\/a>, deputies responded to the Holiday Inn Express at about 11:35 a.m. after an employee discovered a body in one of the hotel rooms.<\/p>\n<p>When deputies arrived, they found the body of 76-year-old Emma Mullin concealed beneath blankets, clothing and towels.<\/p>\n<p>See also: <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/local\/florida-treasure-coast-true-crime-news-elise-elder-ptsd-traumatic-elise-elder-receives-almost-30-years-in-prison-for-the-hit-and-run-death-of-a-cyclist-fun-grandpa-dui-blood-alcohol-levels-hit-and-run-crash-deadly-testimony-clinical-psychologist-bodycam\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Martin County woman gets nearly 30 years after DUI hit-and-run killed cyclist<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The sheriff&#8217;s office said investigators determined an altercation had occurred between Mullin and the suspect, identified as Paul Stottler. Deputies said the room contained bloodstains, overturned furniture and broken glass, with obvious signs of trauma to Mullin.<\/p>\n<p>Surveillance video showed Mullin and Stottler entering the hotel room together, but only Stottler leaving several hours later carrying multiple bags, which investigators said he was later seen throwing into a dumpster in the parking lot. While searching the dumpster, investigators found three documents bearing Mullin&#8217;s name hidden inside an ice bucket, along with bedding and a pair of men&#8217;s pants stained with blood, according to the sheriff&#8217;s office.<\/p>\n<p>Stottler was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. He was booked into the Pinellas County Jail.<\/p>\n<p>Mullin&#8217;s next of kin has been notified. The investigation remains ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 An elderly Florida woman was found dead Thursday morning in a hotel room&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-321732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}