Colombian authorities have launched a manhunt for a Texas man who fled the country before his DJ girlfriend was found stuffed in a suitcase that was thrown in a dumpster in the capital city of Bogotá.
Valentina Trespalacios, 23, met with John Poulos, 35, at her home Friday and spent the weekend dining and partying with him before a homeless person searching for recyclables made the gruesome discovery Sunday.
A preliminary autopsy report indicated that Trespalacios was strangled.
Her family has called on the Colombian government to carry out an international search for Poulos, whom them believe killed her.
Trespalacios and Poulos had been dating for eight months despite the English-Spanish language barrier and used translating apps to communicate although Trespalacios spoke a little English.
John Poulos (left) was planning on moving to Colombia and marrying Valentina Trespalacios (right)
A homeless man was searching through a waster container in the Bogotá neighborhood of Los Cámbulos when he discovered the suitcase with Valentina Trespalacios’ bod
The Colombian National Police said investigators have been analyzing a surveillance video that shows the moment a man tossed the suitcase inside the construction dumpster in the Bogotá neighborhood of Los Cámbulos and disappeared.
Authorities have yet to identify the person in the footage, which had not been made public as of Tuesday afternoon.
A government official with Colombia’s migration agency confirmed to Caracol TV that Poulos boarded a flight for Central America.
El Tiempo newspaper confirmed that Poulos has been in Colombia for a week before fleeing.
On Friday, Valentina Trespalacios sent a video to her mother, Laura Hidalgo, showing the couple listening to music in a vehicle driven by Poulos.
During the recording, Trespalacios aims the cellphone camera towards the back of the car and tells her mother that she had loaded all of her belongings and that she was going to go to her home Saturday.
A preliminary autopsy report showed that Colombian DJ Valentina Trespalacios was strangled
A preliminary autopsy report showed that Colombian DJ Valentina Trespalacios was strangled
Hidalgo told Caracol TV that Poulos met Trespalacios at a party she was hired to play music at and that he planned to move to Colombia and marry her.
‘He had good intentions, he met us, her brothers, he had the intention of getting married, making a life here in Colombia with her, investing in Colombia,’ Hidalgo said. ‘He supposedly came all the way to Colombia, I don’t know what happened.’
According to a recently deleted LinkedIn page, Poulos was hired as a financial advisor by Vanguard in 2022.
Colombian DJ Valentina Trespalacios (pictured) was found dead in a suitcase that was tossed inside a dumpster in Bogotá. Her family suspects her boyfriend from Texas, John Poulos, killed her
An official with Colombia’s migration agency confirmed that John Poulos fled the South American country on a flight for Central America on Sunday, hours before the body of his girlfriend, Valentina Trespalacios, was discovered inside a suitcase
The distraught mother described Poulos as someone who ‘didn’t come off as an aggressive person, he seemed calm, very calm.’
However, she noted that he had become jealous of Trespalacios.
‘He became very obsessed with my daughter and he was a little jealous. He had an argument in December with my daughter and it was out of jealousy, because my daughter had many suitors because she was very beautiful.’
Trespalacios’ family said Poulos had deleted his social media pages and stopped responding to their messages.
Still image from a video sent by Colombian DJ Valentina Trespalacios (left) on Saturday while her boyfriend from Texas, John Poulos (right), drove in Bogotá hours before she was found dead stuffed in a suitcase that was abandoned in a dumpster. Poulos, according to Colombia’s migration agency, fled the country on a flight for Central America on Sunday before his wife-to-be was found by a homeless person searching for recyclables
Valentina Trespalacios had opportunities to DJ in Chile, México and Brazil, her family said
Her uncle, Carlos Trespalacios, told Blu Radio that the couple appeared to be having a good time as evidenced by the photos that she shared of them smiling on her WhatsApp status feed.
The vehicle Poulos was driving was found near El Dorado International Airport.
‘She was in a suitcase, dismembered with the pajamas in which she usually slept and we are asking the authorities to speed up this part,’ he said.
‘She went out to party with her American fiancé on Friday and Saturday, so much so that she shared WhatsApp messages while at the nightclub. There is no doubt that they were (hanging out), so we want him to appear, to show face, to give us his version, to tell us where he left her, what happened to her?’