“What was your craziest first date?” a Twitter user asked her sizable following late last year.
Among the hundreds of romantic responses was a tweet from 35-year-old US citizen John Poulos, who often shared misogynistic content on social media.
“Invited a Colombian woman on vacation without meeting her first - now we’re getting married,” Mr Poulos wrote on 17 December along with a photo with Valentina Trespalacios posing in front of ancient ruins.
Just over a month later on 22 January, Mr Poulos allegedly strangled and beat Trespalacios to death in an apartment he had rented in the Colombian capital Bogota.
Prosecutors from the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia allege Mr Poulos stuffed the 21-year-old DJ’s body into a suitcase and left it in a dumpster before fleeing on a flight to Panama.
Mr Poulos was arrested on 24 January at Panama City’s Tocumen International Airport while trying to board a flight to Turkey.
He was extradited to Colombia where he has been charged with aggravated femicide and concealment of evidence.
This week, Colombian prosecutors announced they would seek a prison term of more than 35 years in jail for the divorced father of three from Wisconsin.
Invited a Colombian woman on vacation without meeting her first - now we’re getting married. pic.twitter.com/ydCm4jWmBW
— 🤙 (@ptrain67) December 17, 2022
Underneath Mr Poulos’s tweet announcing his engagement, a grim update has been added via the crowd-sourced Community Notes.
“The user who posted this tweet is now charged with murdering the woman in question,” the update reads.
A whirlwind romance
Valentina Trespalacios’ music career was about to take off.
The DJ, who specialised in the dance genre guaracha, had been recognised at the Colombia Dance Awards was working on her first album at the time of her death, music producer David Sarria told Billboard magazine.
She had performed with international stars such as Steve Aoki and Erik Morillo, and was one of the highest rated young DJs in Colombia, Mr Sarria said.
Valentina Trespalacios was one of Colombia’s top DJs, and was working on her first album when she was killed— (Instagram / Valentina Trespalacios)
She was a fixture at clubs around the country, and was making enough money to support her family, brother Daniel Trespalacios told the Daily Beast.
Trespalacios met John Poulos on the dating app Tinder some time in April 2022, which is when he invited her to go on vacation before they had met.
He then made several trips to Colombia over the next ten months.
The couple were planning to buy a house and get married.
According to prosecutors, Mr Poulos, a financial adviser, showed signs of jealousy and controlling behaviour in the weeks leading up to his fiancée’s murder.
At a court hearing in February, it was alleged that Mr Poulos hired a private investigator to trail Trespalacios to Aruba.
Mr Poulos saw his fiancé as “his personal object” and controlled her actions and friendships, and monitored her social media use, Daniel Gómez Acuña told the court, according to Colombia.com.
Days before she was killed, Mr Poulos returned to Colombia allegedly infuriated by a report from the private investigator that Trespalacios had been seen with another man in Aruba.
Colombian DJ Valentina Trespalacios was beaten to death before being dumped in a suitcase, prosecutors say— (Instagram / Valentina Trespalacios)
The couple moved into a short-term Airbnb rental, and Trespalacios performed a DJ set at a Bogota nightclub on Friday 20 January, family said.
She spoke to her brother by video call on Saturday night, the last time she was seen alive.
“Poulos had sexual relations with Valentina Trespalacios and proceeded to violently beat (her) body with his own fists, after which he put pressure with his hands around her neck until she died,” Mr Gómez Acuña told the court hearing in February.
Surveillance footage obtained by prosecutors showed Mr Poulos leave the apartment the next with a large blue suitcase and lift it into the boot of his rented vehicle.
Trespalacios’ remains were found in a dumpster in the south of the city the next afternoon. Her killing has sparked widespread fury in Colombia.
An attempted escape
Mr Poulos flew from Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport to Panama the same day.
He was arrested by Panamanian immigration officials moments before he was about to board a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul. He was due to catch a connecting flight to Montenegro, which has no extradition arrangement with Colombia.
John Poulos was arrested in Panama while trying to flee to Montenegro, prosecutors say— (Policía Nacional de Panama)
Mr Poulos also purchased a ticket from Panama City to São Paulo, Brazil, in an attempt to throw off Colombian authorities.
He initially told Panamanian authorities that the Medellin Cartel had been responsible for Trespalacios’ murder.
He was charged with femicide — which is defined as the killing of a woman or girl due to her gender.
Authorities in Panama released images of John Poulos’ US passport and plane tickets to Turkey— (Panama Policia Nacional)
Mr Poulos initially denied he was responsible for the horrific murder, according to RCN Noticias.
This week, as prosecutors sought a 35-year sentence, his team of lawyers were trying to seek a more lenient sentence in exchange for a guilty plea.
A trial had been due to begin in April, but was delayed after Mr Poulos claimed he had received inadequate access to translation services while in custody and during his first court appearances.
According to RCN Noticias, Mr Poulos was assaulted in his cell earlier this week.
Images showing cuts and bruises to his face were obtained by the news outlet, who described his injuries as not serious. He has claimed he is fearful for his life.
Mr Poulos’ ex-wife was granted a divorce by a judge in Wisconsin in 2021 after determining their marriage was irretrievably broken.
On social media, Mr Poulos often shared mysognistic “jokes” and regularly retweeted Andrew Tate, the social media influencer who has been charged with with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women in Romania.
