Tennessee man allegedly strangled girlfriend, attempted to sell car with her dead body in back seat: police

A man in Tennessee has been charged with murder over a month after allegedly strangling his girlfriend to death and attempting to sell off a vehicle with her body in the back seat – before ultimately abandoning the vehicle on a Nashville overpass, according to authorities. 

Homicide detective with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department on Monday swore out an arrest warrant charging 31-year-old Robert Miquel Johnson with the murder of his girlfriend. This comes over a month after the body of 44-year-old Pamela Paz was found the morning on May 2 in a small parking area on Pennington Bend Road at the Briley Parkway overpass. 

Paz was a single mother to four children, WKRN reported. Paz’ 18-year-old daughter, Kendall Smith, initially told the outlet at the time her mother’s body was discovered that her sister and two young brothers ages 10 and 11 were in disbelief as to what happened. 

"My brothers don’t deserve this, my sister don’t deserve this, I don’t deserve this, she didn’t deserve that," Smith said. "I’m terribly angry about it. I don’t understand why anyone would want to do that to my mom… She always had a good heart, wanted the best for everybody."

Smith said Paz was last seen alive by family at her grandmother’s home in the town of Smyrna, located in Rutherford County, Tenn., days earlier and that Paz was spending time with an ex-boyfriend. An autopsy later showed Paz died from neck trauma and/or strangulation.

"They said she didn’t go down without a fight, that she put up a fight as hard as she could which in return made it not an easy death for her. Which for me, I think that was the hardest part for me to hear," Smith told the station. 

Johnson was identified as a suspect during the course of an investigation led by Det. Ryan Russell. 

Johnson was initially arrested on May 7 after being wanted for questioning, WKRN reported. At that time, he "was interviewed and provided an alibi, which was subsequently proven to be false," the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department said in their statement Monday. 

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Detectives later located a witness who reported that the day before Paz’s body was found, Johnson attempted to sell her a Dodge Charger "with the victim deceased in the back seat," police said. 

At the time the arrest warrant was sworn in his girlfriend’s murder Monday, Johnson was already jailed in Wilson County on unrelated charges. He was to be booked in Nashville on the criminal homicide warrant.