Overview
- FBI Director Kash Patel announced late Wednesday that 38-year-old David Varela was apprehended overseas and is expected to be returned to the United States.
- Norfolk police charged Varela with first-degree murder and concealing a body after Lina M. Guerra, 39, was found in a kitchen freezer on February 5, and the medical examiner ruled her death a homicide caused by blunt force trauma and asphyxiation.
- Investigators say Varela left the U.S. for Hong Kong around the time Guerra’s body was found, and emergency requests to WhatsApp showed his location pinging from the city, though officials have not said where he was captured.
- A federal notice filed in San Francisco says Varela was arrested on an unlawful flight warrant that accuses him of fleeing to avoid prosecution on the Virginia charges.
- Guerra’s relatives in Colombia allege Varela had been controlling and violent before her death, and they have struggled to secure her ashes for a memorial in their home country.