A British medic wanted over the murder of a Colombian model whose remains were found stuffed inside a suitcase has been arrested in Ecuador – hours after he used watching the World Cup as his alibi.
Cleaning staff entered Natalia Villalba Angarita’s seventh-floor apartment in Bogotá on June 22 after the rental period ended. The shower was still running. In the bathroom, they discovered a grey suitcase containing the 36-year-old model’s body.
“British medic Matthew Foster-Smith arrested in Ecuador after model Natalia Villalba's body found in a suitcase in Bogotá.”
Matthew Ashley Foster-Smith, 46, from Bournemouth, had been named locally as the man police wanted to question. He insisted he was innocent, telling The Sun: “I was watching England versus Croatia on a big screen in an Irish bar, so it wasn’t me.” He claimed he went to a shopping centre afterwards, bought an ice cream, and returned to the bar before going to bed alone at about 11pm.
But Colombian prosecutors said he had beaten his victim to death on June 18, manipulated her body into the suitcase, and fled. CCTV from the apartment captured Foster-Smith arriving on June 17 and leaving the next day – the day before police say he killed Villalba. He was also filmed taking bedsheets to a laundry room inside the building.
Foster-Smith, who has two UK stalking convictions and is banned from practising as a doctor, crossed the Rumichaca Bridge into Ecuador the day before the body was found. At Quito International Airport on Friday, Ecuador’s National Police arrested him under an Interpol Red Notice obtained by Colombian prosecutors.
“He is alleged to be responsible for the death of a 36-year-old woman,” the prosecutor’s office said. “He allegedly entered the apartment where the victim was alone, physically assaulted her until she died, and manipulated the body to place it inside a suitcase. He then carried out various actions to conceal what had happened, alter the crime scene, and flee.”
A source told Colombian press that Foster-Smith’s phone calls were traced as he tried to buy a ticket to Europe. Dorset Police assisted in the investigation. Villalba, who also worked as a graphic designer, had booked the flat for four days with a US national from Texas, then extended her stay. Her mother Claudia told Caracol Radio she last spoke with her daughter on June 16, describing her as a “hard-working and determined woman”.
Bogotá’s mayor, Carlos Fernando Galán, thanked police on social media: “In Bogota, if you commit the crime, you pay the price.” Colombian prosecutors will seek Foster-Smith’s extradition to face charges of aggravated femicide and concealment of evidence.