Overview
- FBI Director Kash Patel said late Wednesday that David Varela, 38, was apprehended overseas and is expected to be extradited to the United States.
- Norfolk police found Lina M. Guerra’s body in a kitchen freezer on February 5, and the medical examiner ruled she died from blunt force trauma and asphyxiation.
- Investigators with the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and NCIS say Varela left the U.S. on or about February 5 and was believed to be in Hong Kong, with emergency requests to WhatsApp showing location data from there.
- Virginia authorities charged Varela with first-degree murder and concealing a body, and the Navy says the reservist was on active orders and unusually stopped returning calls to his chain of command after the discovery.
- Officials have not disclosed where he was captured, and the case now moves to extradition proceedings before a return to Virginia to face the charges.