The dismembered body of a Florida teacher was discovered stuffed inside a suitcase along a Georgia roadside, days after her boyfriend allegedly left behind a blood-soaked crime scene, authorities said.
Carmen Elsa Escalante Carrera, 29, was found in a suitcase on Oct. 31, just days after she disappeared from her Florida home. Authorities charged her boyfriend, 41-year-old Jorge Javier Quintero, with first-degree murder, based on an arrest affidavit from the Orange County Sheriff's Office obtained by PEOPLE.
The investigation began on Oct. 29, after Quintero reportedly sent "concerning" text messages to a friend. Upon checking his Orlando residence, the friend found a "bathtub covered in blood" and a bloody knife, court records show. Investigators discovered, according to PEOPLE, bloody clothes, a bloodstained bathtub, and what appeared to be suicide notes at the scene. The investigation later led authorities to a second apartment where the couple had planned to move in together. There, police found bloody towels and blood stains on the walls.
Neither Quintero nor Carrera could be located initially.
U.S. Marshals located Quintero on Oct. 31 in Saraland, Ala., where he was wounded in an alleged encounter with law enforcement. He was hospitalized in critical but stable condition.
That same day, Georgia authorities found Carrera's dismembered body in a suitcase. It was noted that a power cord was around her neck, and rosary beads were found nearby. The autopsy confirmed that Carrera died from ligature strangulation. Carrera was a teacher, according to the National Gun Violence Memorial.
Quintero was arrested on Nov. 25 and charged with first-degree murder and fraudulent use of personal identification information, according to online court records. The records do not indicate whether he has entered a plea or secured legal representation.
Originally published in Lawyer Herald
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