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19th July 2023
08:10am BST
A man who posted a viral tweet about inviting a woman on holiday with him despite having never met her is accused of her murder.
American citizen, John Poulos, 35, is facing a possible sentence of more than 35 years from Colombian prosecutors for allegedly killing his girlfriend, 21-year-old Colombian DJ, Valentina Trespalacios.
Poulos, originally from Wisconsin, is accused of strangling and beating Trespalacios to death in an apartment in the Colombian capital of Bogota.
Her death has sparked outrage in Colombia and a tweet has since resurfaced online which Poulos posted in last year in response to a viral Twitter challenge.
On December 17, 2022, a Twitter user asked people what their "craziest first date" was.
Poulos replied with a selfie of himself and Trespalacios and wrote: “Invited a Colombian woman on vacation without meeting her first - now we’re getting married.”
A context note has since been added to the tweet - which racked up almost 13,000 likes - explaining that "the user who posted this tweet is now charged with murdering the woman in question."
Just over a month after the tweet was posted, January 22, 2023, the 21-year-old was found dead.
The pair met on Tinder in April 2022. Poulos invited Trespalacios to go on holiday with him, which was when they met for the first time.
Over the following 10 months he made and he made a number of trips to Colombia, and the pair were planning to buy a house and get married, the Independent reports.
In January 19, they had moved into an apartment in Bogota, which Poulos told Trespalacios they were renting long-term.
On January 22, they allegedly had sex before the divorced dad-of-three allegedly beat her and choked her to death.
Prosecutors from the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia allege Poulos then stuffed the 21-year-old DJ’s body into a suitcase and left it in a dumpster before boarding a flight to Panama.
On January 24, he was arrested at Panama City’s Tocumen International Airport while trying to board a flight to Turkey.
He was extradited to Colombia and has been charged with aggravated femicide and concealment of evidence.
Poulos has been in custody since January 25 and prosecutors announced this week they would be seeking a jail term of at least 35 years.
CCTV footage from the apartment he was staying at with Trespalacios when she died allegedly shows Poulos using a supermarket trolley to move luggage bags to his car. It is believed Trespalacios' body was in one of the bags, which had a blanket over it because her head could be seen.
After placing the bag in the car boot of his rental Volkswagen Voyage, he drove to the south side of Bogotá where he abandoned the suitcase which had his girlfriend’s body inside in a dumpster.
Her body was discovered the following day, January 23, by a homeless man.
Poulos' trial had been due to begin in April, but was delayed after he claimed he had received inadequate access to translation services while in custody and during his first court appearances.
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