The authorities of Colombia have communicated this Saturday the detention at the Quito airport (Ecuador) of British citizen Foster Martinson, 36 years old, after a week of intense search. He faces the accusation of having killed Colombian Natalia Villalba, whose body was found less than seven days ago inside a suitcase in a Bogotá apartment.
The apprehension of the suspect, also identified by Colombian investigators as Matthew Ashley Foster-Smith, has been carried out in compliance with an international arrest warrant issued through Interpol.
"A working group made up of the Attorney General's Office and CTI Seccional Bogotá, Migración Colombia Regional Andina, the District Secretariat of Security, Coexistence and Justice (SDSCJ), the General Secretariat of Citizen Security and Risk Management of Quito, Interpol of the Ecuadorian Police and Dorset Police managed during this week to locate Matthew Ashley Foster-Smith, who would be responsible for the murder of Natalia Villalba on June 18," said Carlos Fernando Galán, mayor of Bogotá, in a message disseminated on his social networks.
The murder of Natalia Villalba, a model and graphic designer of Colombian nationality, took place on June 18 in a property located in the El Chicó neighborhood, in the northern part of the Colombian capital.
The alleged aggressor had a criminal record in the United Kingdom: a two-year sentence for harassment in 2023, which involved monitoring by British authorities. Despite this, he managed to leave his country and fly to Bogotá.
Recordings from the building's security cameras reportedly registered his movements in the apartment where the model was temporarily staying. According to those images, the man entered on Wednesday, June 17, and left the next day, after taking several sheets to the laundry.
Days later, a general services worker found the young woman's body in the bathroom, hidden in a gray suitcase. The Prosecutor's Office, which is conducting the process under the classification of femicide, maintains that the murder occurred on Thursday, June 18. According to the investigation, the perpetrator allegedly left the shower tap open to delay the decomposition of the body and gain time to escape the country, in addition to manipulating the scene by taking the victim's mobile phone.