A Texas man is accused of killing his girlfriend, a popular DJ in Colombia, and stuffing her body into a suitcase before trying to flee the country.
The body of 23-year-old Valentina Trespalacios was found in a blue suitcase wrapped with duct tape and dumped in a dumpster last week near an airport in the Colombian capital Bogota, the New York Post reported.
Trespalacios, who was a popular DJ with 16,000 followers on Instagram, was determined to have been killed by “mechanical asphyxiation” or “strangulation.”
John Nelson Poulos, Trespalacios’ 35-year-old boyfriend who met her on a dating app last year, left Colombia for Panama days before her body was found. He was arrested on January 24 when he was preparing to board a flight to Montenegro, a country that does not have an extradition agreement with Colombia or the United States.
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Valentina Trespalacios and John Nelson Poulos
(Jam press)
Poulos, who is said to be married with three children, allegedly told police he was fleeing the country to escape a drug cartel and says the cartel is responsible for Trespalacios’ death.
A visible scratch on Polulos’ face can be seen on his mugshot, and El País reported that Trespalacios’ family said he was “jealous and controlling” and hired a private investigator to track his movements last year.
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Valentina Trespalacios was a DJ with more than 16,000 followers on Instagram
(Jam press)
Poulos has been charged with aggravated femicide.
“He was the one who hurt my daughter and he doesn’t deserve to be like that. I want justice to be done,” said Laura Hidalgo, Trespalacios’ mother, according to the Daily Mail.
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Valentina Trespalacios was murdered shortly after finishing a DJ set last week
(Jam press)
“It is not fair that a foreigner comes to excite a Colombian girl and ends up like this. I hope this case does not go unpunished. She was the last person to see her alive and she didn’t have to hurt her.”
