PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The man wanted for stabbing and killing his girlfriend in Telford earlier this year was tracked down and taken into custody in Honduras over the weekend.
Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan said before she disappeared, 22-year-old Maria Popol Garcia had told coworkers she was planning to move out of the apartment she shared with 27-year-old Darwin Espinal Del Cid.
She was last seen with Espinal Del Cid shortly before midnight on March 6.
“She was in a rideshare with the defendant. They were having an argument because she had just decided to break up with him and had told him that,” Khan said.
Khan said back in the apartment, Espinal Del Cid stabbed Popol Garcia in the neck.
“He stuffed her into a closet, threw a blanket or a towel and some clothes on top of her after wrapping her up, and then left her to die, choking on her own blood,” Khan said.
Khan said Espinal Del Cid took Popol’s phone and sent text messages pretending he was her the days after she was killed.
Her mother filed a missing persons report on March 13, what would have been her 23rd birthday. Her body was found in the apartment closet on March 14.
Espinal Del Cid is awaiting extradition back to Bucks County to face murder charges.
Khan called it a sobering reminder of the danger of domestic violence.
