Upon being located and questioned by authorities, a blood-stained Florida woman suspected of murdering her roommate poured Diet Mountain Dew all over herself in an attempt to erase DNA evidence from her body.
On July 1, first responders were called to a home where clothes on the second floor had been set on fire. After extinguishing the flames, firefighters found 79-year-old Michael Cerasoli, who appeared to have suffered blunt-force trauma to the back of the head and stab wounds.
A knife was found on top of a cell phone belonging to the suspect, Nichole A. Maks, who the landlord told police was the other tenant of the home.
Within two hours, police had tracked down Maks, who was barefoot with blood on her legs outside of a Krystal restaurant. According to police, Maks dropped a knife and a hammer when they approached.
After denying her affiliation with the victim, as well as her living situation, Maks finally told police that she did live in the building but only went to the second floor that day to "feed her spiders."
When asked about the weapons dropped when the police found her, Maks demanded a lawyer.
Police then returned with a warrant to test the DNA on Maks' body.
That's when Maks asked authorities for the soda.
When Maks "procrastinated" with the Diet Mountain Dew, police tried to take it away from her, but according to the affidavit:
"[She] began to resist and poured the can of soda all over her body and hair... pulling away from officers in attempts to interfere with the possible evidence on [her] body."
People on social media had alllll kinds of reactions.
A few were even curious if her attempt actually worked.
It was not, if fact, successful. Blood on the knife near Cerasoli's body at the crime scene matched samples from Maks' clothing.
Maks was taken into custody and charged with one count of first-degree murder, one count of tampering with evidence and one count of resisting arrest.
She is currently being held in Volusia County Jail without bond and has a court date scheduled for September 5.
