A Texas resident was arrested on suspicion of murdering his partner in Colombia – and hiding her body in a suitcase
Two days after Colombian authorities found the body, the 35-year-old suspect was arrested in Panama while on his way to board several flights – with the final destination being Montenegro, a country with no extradition treaty with the US or Colombia
The body of a young DJ was found in an abandoned suitcase near the airport in Bogota, the capital of Colombia, when her American boyfriend was detained in Panama while trying to board a flight to Turkey.
23-year-old Valentina Traspelasius was found Sunday inside a blue suitcase, wrapped in tape and dumped in a trash can near El Dorado International Airport. The coroners determined that her death was caused by suffocation.
Shortly before the gruesome discovery, Trespelasius’ boyfriend, 35-year-old John Nelson Poulos of Texas, left Colombia for Panama, where he was arrested two days later while in line to board a flight to Turkey.
A local Bogotá newspaper reported that when Poulos was arrested, he had clear scratch marks on his face, and was in possession of a Turkish Airlines ticket from Istanbul to Podgorica, Montenegro – a small Balkan country that has no extradition treaty with the United States or Colombia.
The 35-year-old Wisconsin native also reportedly bought a first-class ticket from Panama to Sao Paulo, Brazil, with cash in a possible ploy to elude authorities in the event of an international manhunt.
On Thursday, he was extradited to Colombia.
Poulos, a private investor in a securities company in the US, and according to reports in the Colombian media is married and the father of three, traveled to Colombia several times while he was in a relationship with Trespelasios, whom he met on a dating app about a year ago.
When he was arrested, according to police, he told investigators he was fleeing to Panama because the Madin cartel was chasing him, and claimed the cartel was the one who murdered his 23-year-old partner.
Another report indicates that Trespelasius’ family said that the 35-year-old has ties to the Sinaloa cartel from Mexico.
They also told the media that Poulos planned to marry her, and wanted to start a new life and settle in Colombia. “I gave you my only home, why did you have to throw it away?” said the 21-year-old’s mother, Laura Hidalgo.
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