A Briton accused of murdering a woman in Colombia and putting her body in a suitcase is captured in Ecuador
The capture was possible thanks to joint work between authorities from Ecuador, Colombia and the United Kingdom.
The Ecuadorian authorities captured at the Quito international airport a British citizen accused of being responsible for the murder of Natalia Villalba, who was found inside a suitcase last week in an apartment in the Chicó neighborhood, in the north of Bogotá, the Colombian Prosecutor's Office reported.
According to the investigation, the detainee, identified as Foster Martinson - also referred to by local authorities as Matthew Ashley Foster-Smith - had allegedly entered the property where the 36-year-old victim was located and physically attacked her until she died.
Martinson allegedly “manipulated the body to put it in a suitcase” and carried out maneuvers to hide what happened and alter the scene before fleeing.
According to local media, the man was sentenced in 2023 to two years and two months in prison, after being found responsible for harassing an ex-partner, following her to a gym and disclosing intimate images after the breakup of the relationship.
The mayor of Bogotá, Carlos Fernando Galán, highlighted in networks that the capture was possible thanks to joint work between the Prosecutor's Office, the Technical Investigation Corps (CTI), Migration Colombia, the Security Secretariat of Bogotá, Ecuadorian authorities, Interpol and the Dorset Police (United Kingdom).
"Cooperation between security and justice agencies (...) is key in the fight against crime. In Bogotá, the one who does it pays," said the local leader.
The Prosecutor's Office indicated that it will carry out the necessary procedures for the foreign citizen to be placed at the disposal of the Colombian authorities and answer for the crimes of aggravated feminicide and concealment, alteration or destruction of material evidence.
The case became known on June 22, when the authorities found the woman's lifeless body inside a suitcase in a building in the town of Chapinero, which generated alarm among the residents of the sector.
According to preliminary information, the victim, a native of Cúcuta, a city on the border with Venezuela, was in a temporary apartment with a foreign citizen, who has since been sought by the authorities.
This crime recalled the case of DJ Valentina Trespalacios, murdered in Bogotá in 2023 in similar circumstances, for which the American John Poulos was sentenced to 42 years in prison.
According to the Colombian Observatory of Femicides, the Andean country recorded 886 murders of women at the hands of men due to misogyny or machismo in 2024, a figure that shows the persistence of violence against women in Colombia.