Overview
- Firefighters found 19-year-old Julissa Rubi Salazar dead in her Tucson apartment on Aug. 6 with signs of trauma and investigators opened a homicide probe.
- Tucson detectives identified 20-year-old Varun Batchigari as a suspect and say he flew from Tucson to Germany the same day Salazar was found.
- U.S. and German agencies coordinated the arrest at a German airport after Batchigari arrived there and he is now awaiting extradition to face first-degree murder and kidnapping warrants.
- Court records and roommate statements allege prior abusive incidents including an earlier assault charge, a reported sexual touching claim, and the suspect’s expulsion from the University of Arizona on July 22.
- The campus held a memorial for Salazar and local victim services and prosecutors have called for greater outreach to spot intimate-partner violence while India’s foreign ministry says it is in touch with U.S. authorities as the legal process moves forward.