A Texas man is charged with murdering his Colombian girlfriend, a well-known DJ, and packing her body into a bag before attempting to exit the country.
According to the New York Post, Valentina Trespalacios, 23, was found dead in a blue suitcase that had been taped shut and dumped into a dumpster last week close to an airport in the nation’s capital, Bogota.
It was found that Trespalacios, a well-known DJ with 16,000 Instagram followers, died from “mechanical asphyxia” or “strangulation.”
Days before her body was discovered, Trespalacios’s 35-year-old lover John Nelson Poulos, whom she had first met on a dating app the previous year, left Colombia for Panama. He was detained on January 24 as he prepared to board a plane bound for Montenegro, which neither Colombia nor the US has extradition treaties with.
Poulos, who is rumored to be married and have three children, allegedly claimed authorities he was leaving the nation to avoid a drug cartel and claims the group is to blame for Trespalacios’ passing.
Polulos’ face is clearly scratched in his arrest photo, and El Pais said that Trespalacios’ family claimed Polulos was “jealous and controlling” and had employed a private detective to follow her whereabouts the previous year.
The accusation against Poulos has aggravated femicide.
“He was the one who injured my daughter, and he shouldn’t be allowed to carry on as usual. Justice must be served, “According to Daily Mail, Trespalacios’ mother, Laura Hidalgo, remarked.
“It’s unfair that a foreigner who came to arouse a Colombian female ends up in this situation. I really hope someone is caught in this case. He didn’t have to harm her even though he was last to see her alive.”
