Colombian police and Interpol are hunting a British man whose movements place him inside a seventh-floor Bogotá apartment where the body of 36-year-old model Natalia Villalba Angarita was discovered stuffed inside a grey suitcase on June 22 — with the bathroom shower still running when cleaning staff made the grim find.
Villalba Angarita, a professional model originally from Cúcuta, in northern Colombia, had been staying at an upscale short-term rental in the heart of the Colombian capital. When the lease period expired, cleaning staff entered the unit to prepare it for its next occupant. What they found in the bathroom stopped them cold: a large, grey travel suitcase concealing the victim’s remains, the shower running as if the apartment were still occupied. The case is being treated as a possible willful homicide and violent death.
The Scene Investigators Confronted
Detectives from the Bogotá Metropolitan Police and the Technical Investigation Corps (CTI) moved quickly to secure the scene. Investigators suspect the running shower may have been a calculated effort by the perpetrator to speed up decay of the body or eliminate trace materials linking the suspect to the crime. Among the personal belongings recovered from the apartment were two passports belonging to Villalba Angarita: one expired, and one valid document bearing entry stamps showing recent travel to Spain.
Forensic specialists from the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences transported the body for a comprehensive post-mortem examination to determine the precise cause and time of death and to recover fingerprint and trace evidence. The grey suitcase itself is being examined for foreign DNA, hair follicles, and microscopic textile fibers that could tie the primary suspect directly to the killing.
British Man Sought as Primary Suspect
Investigators have identified two foreign men connected to the rental. A United States citizen from Texas was present during the earlier portion of Villalba Angarita’s stay. A British national, believed to have secured the apartment lease, entered the property on June 17 and departed the following day. Surveillance footage from the building captured the British man carrying bed linen to a laundry area — footage that both corroborates his presence inside the unit and helps establish his precise movements during the critical window.
Law enforcement officials have requisitioned hundreds of hours of security camera recordings from the apartment tower, nearby businesses, and El Dorado International Airport in an effort to reconstruct the suspect’s escape route. Building entry logs and the recorded movements of both foreign men are under active analysis. Neither the British national nor the American citizen has been arrested, and both remain at large.
Authorities fear the perpetrator may have already left Colombian jurisdiction. An Interpol Red Notice request is reportedly being expedited, with alerts directed at immigration and customs officials throughout South America, the United Kingdom, and nations participating in the European Schengen Agreement. The Colombian National Police are coordinating directly with the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office as the investigation takes on an increasingly urgent diplomatic dimension. No motive has been confirmed.
Echoes of a Chilling 2023 Case
The discovery has drawn immediate comparisons to one of Colombia’s most disturbing recent femicide cases. In 2023, the body of DJ Valentina Trespalacios was found stuffed inside a blue suitcase discarded in a Bogotá dumpster. Her killer, John Poulos, was intercepted while trying to escape to Europe through Panama and later received a conviction for aggravated femicide. The parallel circumstances — a woman found concealed in a suitcase, a foreign man fleeing the country — have not been lost on investigators or the public, and the Trespalacios case has cast a long shadow over the current inquiry.
A Race Against Time and Borders
With each passing hour, the likelihood that the British suspect has crossed into another jurisdiction grows. Colombian authorities have made clear that the investigation is moving on multiple fronts simultaneously: forensic teams dissecting the physical evidence at the crime scene, digital analysts combing through hundreds of hours of surveillance recordings, and international liaisons pressing Interpol to activate the fastest possible response. The post-mortem examination is expected to provide the precise timeline investigators need to close any gaps in the suspect’s known movements.
Natalia Villalba Angarita was 36 years old. She had traveled internationally, carried a current passport, and built a career in front of the camera. Her remains were found in a suitcase in a bathroom, in an apartment she did not rent, in a city far from her hometown. The investigation continues.