Registered Sex Offender Charged With Murder Of Lake Elsinore Woman

, 41, has been charged with the murder of a whose body was found late Tuesday morning in Vans Ranch Pipe Canyon Wash in Landers.

Paoletto had been "a person of interest" in the case, but late Tuesday evening it was announced by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department that he was charged with murdering

According to the department, Paoletto is being charged on penal code 187, the "unlawful killing of a human being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought." He is scheduled to appear at Morongo Superior Court, Dept. M2, on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. on the charge.

At approximately 11 a.m. Tuesday, by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department.

As of late Tuesday, the San Bernardino County Coroner's Office said autopsy results on Petro were pending and it had not determined a cause of death or time of death.

Petro went missing from her apartment at 1410 Morro Way in Lake Elsinore on Jan. 4. She was reported missing to the authorities on Jan. 7.

Paoletto has been held in custody by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department after being arrested Monday at a residence in Hesperia. He was arrested on charges of being an out of compliance sex offender.

According to the California Registered Sex Offender database, Paoletto's last known address was in Corona. According to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, he is scheduled to appear in Victorville Superior Court Wednesday on that charge.

As a result of the murder charge, Paoletto is being held without bail.