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Suspected Florida killer caught in Canada

VICTORIA, British Columbia -- Authorities said Friday they have confirmed a man arrested on a Canadian island as the suspect in the slaying of his girlfriend in Florida in 1986.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the suspect was identified as Gerald Gervasoni, who was arrested Thursday on Salt Springs Island, British Columbia, following a tip from a viewer who saw his profile on the American television program 'Unsolved Mysteries.'

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Gervasoni was working as a house painter under an assumed name. He denied being the suspect, but a fingerprint check verified he is the man wanted for killing Paula Pasciak at her mother's mobile home in Kissimmee, Florida.

During a visit, Gervasoni told his girlfriend's mother the couple was going on a short trip. Four days later the mother tried to track down the source of a bad smell, looked under a bed and found her daughter's strangled body wrapped in a bamboo curtain.

Gervasoni is being held in Victoria, B.C., pending extradition to Florida.

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