Married Texas man acccused of killing 23-year-old Colombian girlfriend and stuffing her in a suitcase

A Texan man has been charged with aggravated femicide after the body of his girlfriend, Valentina Trespalacios, was discovered inside a blue suitcase near an airport in Bogota, Colombia.

Trespalacios, a 23-year-old DJ with 16,000 followers on Instagram, had been strangled to death.

John Nelson Poulos, the 35-year-old boyfriend of Trespalacios, had been attempting to flee the country to Panama days before her body was found. He was arrested as he was about to board a flight to Montenegro, a country with no extradition agreement with Colombia or the United States.

Poulos claims he was trying to escape from a drug cartel and that the cartel is responsible for the death of Trespalacios.

A visible scratch on Poulos’ face in his mugshot has prompted speculation from Trespalacios’ family, who allege he was “jealous and controlling” and had hired a private investigator to track her movements last year.

Trespalacios’ mother, Laura Hidalgo, has expressed her desire for justice. “He was the one who hurt my daughter, and he doesn’t deserve to be around like if nothing happened. I want justice done,” she said. “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. He was the last person to see her alive, and he didn’t have to hurt her.”