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Trigger warning: This post includes disturbing details about the murder of a pregnant woman.
Former Olympic boxer Félix Verdejo Sanchez, 27, also known as “El Diamante,” has been arrested and charged in the killing of a pregnant woman said to be his girlfriend, NPR reports.
Verdejo turned himself in to Puerto Rican authorities Sunday after the bodies of Keishla Marlen Rodriguez and the couple’s unborn son were discovered in the San Jose Lagoon. Verdejo is charged with kidnapping resulting in death, carjacking resulting in death, and intentionally killing an unborn child. All three charges carry a sentence of life in prison or the death penalty.
An unidentified witness told FBI agents that Verdejo allegedly contacted him on April 27 seeking help in terminating Rodriguez’s pregnancy. Two days later, Sanchez allegedly set the plan in motion and asked the victim to meet him.
“Verdejo and the witness drove to the meeting in the black Dodge Durango SUV,” an affidavit reads. From there, the witness says that Rodriguez, who arrived in her own vehicle, got inside of Verdejo’s SUV. The witness says that the boxer punched the victim in the face and then injected her “with a syringe filled with substances purchased” in San Juan. The witness alleged that he helped Verdejo restrain the victim’s arms and legs with wire and tied a block to her body before throwing it over the Teodoro Moscoso Bridge into a body of water. “Verdejo shot at the Victim with a pistol from the bridge,” the affidavit reads.
“I commend our partners in the FBI, the Puerto Rico Police Bureau, and the Puerto Rico Department of Justice for their dedicated and tireless efforts that led to the charges and arrest of the defendant,” said US Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow, according to CNN. “We will continue working towards the ending of gender-based violence, and we offer our deepest condolences to the family of the victim.”
Rodriguez was just 27 years old.
