Authorities in Panama apprehended the lover from Texas of a DJ who was discovered strangled and placed in a suitcase that had been abandoned in the Colombian capital city of Bogotá.
John Poulos, 35, was arrested Tuesday while attempting to board a trip to another country at a Panama airport, according to numerous Colombian media sites.
Two days before to his arrest, a homeless man scavenging for recyclables on the south side of Bogotá discovered the death of 23-year-old Valentina Trespalacios inside a blue suitcase.
According to El Espectador, Poulos is awaiting extradition to Colombia, where he will be prosecuted with femicide.
John Poulos (pictured) was apprehended in Panama on Tuesday, mere minutes before boarding a flight. The 35-year-old Texas resident is wanted in Colombia for the death of his DJ girlfriend, Valentina Trespalacios, in Bogotá, Colombia.
Eight months ago, Valentina Trespalacios (pictured) was dating John Poulos.
Eight months have passed since Trespalacios and Poulos met at an event where Trespalacios was hired to perform.
On Friday, she relocated to a home rented by Poulos in the northern section of the capital, where they were expected to cohabitate since they were in the early stages of wedding preparations.
Before disaster struck, the pair intended to visit her mother’s home after a weekend of dining and partying.
According to an autopsy report, Trespalacios was strangled with a rope and her corpse was bruised.
Her family has requested that the Colombian government conduct a global search for Poulos, who they believe is responsible for Trespalacios’s death.
As of Tuesday evening, the Colombian National Police were still scouring the couple’s new residence and looking for the 2021 Volkswagen Voyager that Poulos had hired upon his arrival from the United States.
A Colombian National Police official told DailyMail.com that police were studying security footage that shows a man dumping a luggage into a construction bin in the Los Cámbulos neighborhood of Bogotá before he vanished.
As of Tuesday afternoon, authorities had yet to identify the individual in the video, which had not been made public.
Valentina Trespalacios had DJ possibilities in Chile, Mexico, and Brazil, according to her relatives.
John Poulos (shown) escaped Colombia on a trip to Panama on Sunday. He was arrested there on Tuesday and is currently awaiting extradition to Colombia to face charges for the femicide of his girlfriend, Valentina Trespalacios, who was discovered dead inside an abandoned suitcase in Bogotá, Colombia, on Sunday.
The Colombian migration service announced on Monday that Poulos fled the nation for Panama on Sunday, only hours after the body of Trespalacios was found.
The couple went to the Bogotá nightclub Sahara, and the ridesharing app driver who brought them there told Caracol TV that he thought Trespalacios was in danger when she displayed a message on the company’s app that said, “Help, I am in danger.”
The driver, whose name was not disclosed by the source, stated that Trespalacios began making hand motions before Poulos arrived at the car and inquired whether she was okay, to which she responded three times in the affirmative.
When the pair entered the automobile, Poulos inquired whether he knew English. The man said affirmatively and noted that Poulos stayed silent during the journey. According to him, Poulos and Trespalacios were exchanging WhatsApp messages. At 3:48 am, he dropped them off at a club.
On Friday, Valentina Trespalacios emailed her mother, Laura Hidalgo, a video of the couple listening to music in Poulos’s car.
During the footage, Trespalacios points her cellphone camera toward the trunk of the vehicle and informs her mother that she has loaded all of her possessions and will return home on Saturday.
Hidalgo informed RCN Noticias that her daughter would be moving in with Poulos.
According to an autopsy report, DJ Valentina Trespalacios of Colombia was strangled.
In the Bogotá district of Los Cámbulos, a homeless guy was looking through a rubbish container when he discovered the suitcase containing Valentina Trespalacios’ body.
Hidalgo stated in an interview with Caracol TV that Poulos met Trespalacios at a party where she was paid to perform and that he intended to travel to Colombia and marry her.
“He had good intentions, he met us, her brothers, he intended to marry her, make a life with her in Colombia, and invest in the country,” Hidalgo said. He apparently traveled all the way to Colombia, but I have no idea what transpired.
According to a recently removed LinkedIn page, Vanguard employed Poulos in 2022 as a financial advisor.
John Poulos’s recently deleted LinkedIn account revealed that he had been a financial advisor for Vanguard since 2022.
DJ Valentina Trespalacios was discovered dead in a suitcase abandoned in a Bogotá dumpster on Sunday.
The distressed mother stated that Poulos “did not come across as an aggressive person; he appeared calm, very calm.”
She observed, though, that he had become envious of Trespalacios.
He got quite enamored with my daughter and a bit envious. He had a dispute with my daughter in December because he was upset that she had so many suitors because she was so pretty.
The family of Trespalacios reported that Poulos had erased his social media sites and severed all touch with them.
Carlos Trespalacios, her uncle, told Blu Radio that the couple appeared to be having a nice time, as demonstrated by the images of them smiling that she posted on her WhatsApp status page.
“She was in a suitcase, dismembered, along with the pajamas in which she normally slept, and we are requesting that the authorities expedite this part,” he said.
She partied so hard with her American fiancee on Friday and Saturday that she sent WhatsApp texts from the nightclub. There is no doubt that they were (hanging out), therefore we want him to turn up, tell us his side of the story, tell us where he left her and what happened to her.
Daniel Feliciano Trespalacios remembers having a conversation with his sister during her first night in the residence.
The 13-year-old told Caracol TV that his mother noticed something was off when his sister wrote, “Mommy, life is not easy, everything has a price.”
Daughter, you don’t need to give us more; you already give us a lot, my mother said me, assuming that the gentleman had treated her poorly or something.
Daniel Felipe Trespalacios stated that his family had nothing but affection for Poulos and never suspected him of being involved in the death of his sister.
He stated, “He had already traveled to Mexico with my sister.” We did not mistrust him since it appeared that too many events had occurred to warrant our mistrust. If he loved her as much as they say, he would be the first one here to see what is going on with my sister.
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