Interviews with several parties involved in the enigmatic disappearance and death of Paula Sladewski, 26, in Miami, Florida, during the 2010 New Year’s celebrations, were featured on NBC’s “Dateline: Murder of a Golden Girl.” Her ex-boyfriend Kevin Klym was the main speaker, and he spoke about that terrible night and the subsequent investigation. Who is Kevin and where is he right now, then? Let’s investigate.
Who is Kevin Klym?
In the second half of the first decade of the new century, Kevin Klym of Westland, Michigan, met Paula Angela Sladewski. Paula was in no mood to give up her job in exotic dancing at that point because she had already made it her own. We reached the moment where she said, “This is it,” Kevin recalled. Accept it or reject it. Yes, I love you that much, I replied. I’m going to accept it. In spite of the 2008 housing market crash, Paula reportedly made enough money for the young couple to go to Los Angeles.
They spent a few months travelling back and forth between Michigan and California. They were close, according to family members, and Paula took Kevin to her niece’s wedding and her sister Kelly Farris’ home for the holidays. Kelly preferred that the couple spend New Year’s Eve at her house, but Paula, 26, had made plans to travel to South Beach for the festivities in December 2009 in addition to going to a Lady Gaga concert at the Fontainebleau Hotel.
That was my child, Kevin said. She didn’t cut corners when it came to herself, and she enjoyed the good life, you know. Going to South Beach seemed like it was the end of the world. He told how he purchased tickets for the midnight show from scalpers for $700 each. Paula’s attractiveness attracted attention as usual, and John Williams, another spectator, even recorded the couple dancing at the concert. On January 3, 2010, they arrived at Club Space about 5 am after two nights of nonstop partying, where they indulged in alcohol for a few hours.
Kevin insisted Paula was too inebriated and that he should go back to the hotel. However, the model resisted leaving the club as the security ejected him because he was so entranced by all the attention. He alleged that when she requested for her credit card, Kevin gave it to her and they got into a cab to go back to the Miami Beach hotel. He slept until 11:30 am, when he discovered Paula hadn’t come back. He signed in with the hotel employees before calling the Club Space, local hospitals, and jails.
He called the Miami Beach police to file a missing persons report when his search turned up empty. The authorities advised him to get in touch with Miami, a different jurisdiction, as that was where Club Space was situated. Paula was supposedly missing for about 10 hours since the police allegedly refused to take his report before 24 hours had passed. He asked around and spent the remainder of the evening visiting Club Space, which had closed late on a Sunday night, before hiring private investigator David Wasser.
Where is Kevin Klym Now?
In order to learn about Jane Doe’s finding in a burning garbage bin some 12 miles from Club Space, Kevin also got in touch with the medical examiner’s office with a precise description of Paula. Based on dental records, they were able to identify her remains even though the body had been completely burned. After learning about the couple’s tumultuous relationship, the police in North Miami drove Kevin to the station and thought he would be of interest. They engaged in physical, knockdown battles from the beginning, according to Paula’s stepfather Richard Watkins.
Paula was detained in 2009 summer for smashing a bottle over Kevin’s head following an altercation inside their shared flat, according to court documents from Rancho Cucamonga, California. She was initially detained for a dangerous weapon assault and released on bond, but the charges were later dropped in December. In December 2009, while they were visiting Paula’s family in Lavonia, Michigan, Richard said Kevin was arrested for smashing Paula’s nose.
Additionally, he claimed Kevin was scheduled to appear in court on January 4, 2010, but court records were unable to support his claims. However, the police dropped all charges against Kevin after Club Space’s infallible alibi—that he went straight to the hotel—was proven true by the cab and hotel records, as well as by Club Space’s surveillance footage. We looked into a number of possibilities for how he might have been engaged, the main investigator said. Nothing on it worked out. We discovered during the investigation that everything he told us was true.
Kelly, Paula’s sister, defended Kevin as well, saying she didn’t hold him accountable and that the incident involving the fractured nose was ostensibly an accident. The authorities assumed the murderer might have been a local based on the isolated industrial location where Paula’s body was found. The detectives discovered a couple of bouncers in the front door corridor following Paula out of the club, according to the CCTV footage. All of the bouncers’ background checks, as well as their time sheets and records, turned up nothing, though.
Authorities subsequently made a composite sketch of the man that a witness claimed to have seen leaving the club with Paula. Kevin went to Club Space to support his assertion that it matched one of the bouncers there that night. He claimed that the club’s security personnel had changed, an allegation that Louis Puig, the club’s owner, angrily rejected. In his 40s, Kevin now resides in Royal Oak, Michigan.
