RIO LINDA, CA – Authorities charged a woman with murder after discovering the mummified body of her boyfriend, riddled with bullets, buried in a shallow grave nearly a year after he vanished.

Sofia Fermin, 38, is accused of killing 47-year-old Matthew Clark, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office announced. An accessory-after-the-fact warrant is out for 42-year-old Jerry Mulford, who is believed to have left California.

The investigation began in January 2024 when Fermin’s brother reported Clark missing following an altercation with Fermin. His suspicions heightened after she sold Clark’s pickup truck and other belongings. In June, deputies found the truck in San Joaquin County with fingerprints that reportedly belonged to Mulford inside.

During questioning while jailed for an unrelated matter, Fermin told detectives Clark might be in a California rehabilitation facility. However, a prolonged silence on Clark’s social media raised concerns and prompted homicide investigators to take over in September 2024.

As detectives delved deeper, they pieced together a chilling sequence of events. They suspect Fermin shot Clark following a December 2023 dispute, subsequently burying his body at a property in Rio Linda.

The FBI Evidence Response Team joined deputies in December to search the site where Clark’s mummified body was uncovered in a southeast corner grave. An autopsy revealed Clark had been shot at least five times.

Fermin was apprehended on December 23 and remains incarcerated at the Sacramento County Jail, denied bail. Her court appearance is set for March 27. Meanwhile, the search for Mulford continues, with the sheriff’s office appealing to the public for information on his whereabouts.

Anyone possessing information about Mulford is urged to contact the authorities to aid in closing this harrowing case, which has shocked the local community.