Overview
- Paul Allen Perez, 63, was found guilty of four counts of murder and one count of assault on a child under 8 resulting in death.
- Prosecutors said the killings occurred between 1992 and 2001 in central and northern California and all victims were younger than six months.
- The investigation reopened when a fisherman found an infant’s remains in 2007 inside a weighted cooler in Conway Slough, with a coroner citing blunt-force trauma.
- Familial DNA analysis in 2019 identified the baby as Nikko Lee Perez and led investigators to link four additional infant deaths to the same father.
- Only two of the five children’s remains have been recovered, and the children’s mother, Yolanda Perez, pleaded guilty to child endangerment and testified at trial.