Colombian authorities have launched a manhunt for a Texas man who fled the country before his DJ girlfriend was found in a suitcase dumped in a dumpster in the capital, Bogotá.
Valentina Trespalacios, 23, met with John Poulos, 35, at her home on Friday and spent the weekend dining and partying with him before a homeless man looking for recyclables made the gruesome discovery on Sunday.
An autopsy report revealed that Trespalacios had been strangled with a rope and her body injured.
Her family has urged the Colombian government to conduct an international search for Poulos, who they believe killed her.
Trespalacios and Poulos had been together for eight months despite the English-Spanish language barrier and used translation apps to communicate, although Trespalacios spoke some English.
John Poulos (left) planned to move to Colombia and marry Valentina Trespalacios (right).
A homeless man was searching a dumpster in the Los Cámbulos neighborhood of Bogotá when he discovered the suitcase containing the body of Valentina Trespalacios
Colombia’s National Police said investigators analyzed surveillance video showing the moment a man threw the suitcase into the construction dumpster in Bogotá’s Los Cámbulos neighborhood and disappeared.
Authorities have yet to identify the individual in the footage, which had not been released as of Tuesday afternoon.
A government official with the Colombian migration authority confirmed to Caracol TV that Poulos had boarded a flight to Central America.
The newspaper El Tiempo confirmed that Poulos was in Colombia for a week before fleeing.
Colombia’s National Police and Attorney General’s Office declined to tell where Poulos flew to because investigations are ongoing.
A ridesharing driver who drove the couple to a nightclub told Caracol TV he sensed Trespalacios was in danger when she showed him a message on the company’s app that read, “Help, I’m in danger.”
The driver, whose name was not released by the outlet, said Trespalacios started making hand gestures and Poulos arrived at the car and asked if she was okay before replying yes three times.
The couple got in the car and Poulos asked if he spoke English. The man said yes, adding that Poulos remained calm throughout the journey. He said that Poulos and Trespalacios exchanged messages on WhatsApp. He dropped her off at a club at 3:48 am.
A preliminary autopsy report showed that Colombian DJ Valentina Trespalacios was strangled
A preliminary autopsy report showed that Colombian DJ Valentina Trespalacios was strangled
On Friday, Valentina Trespalacios sent her mother Laura Hidalgo a video showing the couple listening to music in a 2021 Volkswagen Voyage driven by Poulos.
During the recording, Trespalacios points the cellphone camera at the back of the car and tells her mother that she has loaded all her belongings and that she will be driving home on Saturday.
Hidalgo told RCN Noticias that her daughter would be moving into an apartment with Poulos.
In an interview with Caracol TV, Hidalgo said that Poulos met Trespalacios at a party where she was supposed to be making music and that he was planning to move to Colombia and marry her.
“He had good intentions, he met us, her brothers, he intended to get married, build a life with her here in Colombia, invest 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 by Vanguard as a financial advisor in 2022.
Colombian DJ Valentina Trespalacios (pictured) was found dead in a suitcase thrown in a dumpster in Bogotá. Her family suspects that her friend 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 to Central America on Sunday, hours before the body of his girlfriend Valentina Trespalacios was discovered in a suitcase
The distraught mother described Poulos as someone who “didn’t come across as an aggressive person, he came across as calm, very calm.”
However, she noted that he had become jealous of Trespalacios.
“He was very obsessed with my daughter and a little jealous. He had a fight with my daughter in December out of jealousy because my daughter had many suitors because she was very beautiful.’
Trespalacios’ family said Poulos deleted his social media pages and stopped responding to their messages.
Still from a video broadcast Saturday by Colombian DJ Valentina Trespalacios (left) while her Texas boyfriend John Poulos (right) was driving in Bogotá, hours before she was found dead in a suitcase left in a dumpster would. According to the Colombian migration authority, Poulos fled the country on a flight to Central America on Sunday before his future wife was found by a homeless man looking for recyclables
Valentina Trespalacios has had opportunities to DJ in Chile, Mexico 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 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 she usually slept in and we’re asking the authorities to expedite that part,” he said.
“She went partying with her American fiancé on Friday and Saturday, so much so that she WhatsApped at the nightclub. There’s no doubt that they (hung out) so we want him to appear, show his face, give us his version, tell us where he left her, what happened to her?
A recently deleted John Poulos LinkedIn account revealed that he had been a financial advisor to Vanguard since 2022
Daniel Felipe Trespalacios recalled a conversation he had with his sister when she spent her first night in the apartment in the north of the Colombian capital.
The 13-year-old boy said his mother sensed something was wrong when his sister texted her: “Mom, life isn’t easy, everything comes at a price.”
“My mom took it when the guy treated her badly or something and said to her, ‘Daughter, you don’t need that, you don’t have to give us anymore, you already give us a lot,'” said Daniel Felipe Trespalacios.
He said the family had only warm feelings for Poulos and never expected him to be implicated in his sister’s murder.
“He had already gone to Mexico with my sister,” he said. “We didn’t distrust him because it seemed to us that too many things had happened to distrust us. If he loved her, as they say, he would be the first to show his face here to see what happens to my sister.”