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UPDATE: Man Arrested In Decomposed Body Case

STOCKTON (CBS13) — Stockton Police have made an arrest in connection with a badly decomposed body found in a Stockton apartment earlier this week.

Police arrested 36-year-old Devon Epps just before midnight Tuesday after he was spotted by a citizen on a street corner near his old apartment. Epps lived in the East Channel Street apartment where the body was found before he was evicted on Sunday. Police believe he lived with the decomposing body in the bathtub for several months.

Police have not identified the body, which was discovered on Monday. However, Isaac Zuniga of Modesto said the woman is his missing sister Veronica Jones.

"It's morbid, it's disgusting and disrespectful," Zuniga said Wednesday after learning of Epps' arrest. "I'm horrified by the experience my sister went through."

<< Watch: Modesto Man Says Decomposing Body Found In Apartment Is His Sister

The 35-year-old mother of 10 has been missing for nearly seven months.

"Sometime in the first two weeks of June is the last time we saw her," he said.

When Isaac heard that a body had been found in the apartment where his sister had lived with her boyfriend, Epps, he knew it had to be her. He said he told Stockton police about Epps when reporting his sister missing. However, until the body is positively identified as Jones, Stockton police refused to address that.

"It's inappropriate to link those cases," Officer Pete Smith said. "When and if it's identified as her, then we'll speak to incidents surrounding the missing persons case."

Isaac says investigators have told him they are 99 percent sure it's his sister's body.

"We are handling this as a homicide investigation, but it's too soon to say if this body is the result of homicide," Smith said on Tuesday. At the time, he also called Epps a "person of interest."

However, police say Epps' overnight arrest was for murder.

A tenant for about a year, Epps suffers from mental problems and caused a slew of problems, according to management, which was why he was evicted Sunday.

"Violence, yelling, screaming, destruction, and women locked in the room," said apartment management employee Leslie Pearce.

Devon Omar Epps
Devon Omar Epps
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