NORFOLK, Va. — In a bond hearing Thursday for David Varela, the Navy reservist accused of murdering his wife earlier this year before fleeing the U.S., prosecutors outlined disturbing new details about the alleged crime as they punctuated their argument for keeping him behind bars while he awaits trial.
News 3 and True Crime 757 have reported extensively on the conditions around 39-year-old Lina Guerra's murder: that she was found in a trash bag in the freezer of the couple's apartment in the Icon building, frozen solid to the point where it took the medical examiner several days to thaw her body before they performed the autopsy.
Watch previous coverage from True Crime 757 on Varela's arrest in Hong Kong
Her official cause of death was ruled blunt force trauma and asphyxiation. But now, prosecutors are saying that Guerra's head was wrapped around seven times with plastic — and that she may have still been alive when she was stuffed in the freezer.
Shortly before police discovered Guerra's body, Varela drove to New York with her three dogs and dropped them off with a friend before flying to Hong Kong. He remained in Hong Kong for more than two months living at a hostel until he was exposed through a News 3 investigation and attempted to fly to Russia to avoid extradition, prosecutors say.
He was captured at the airport trying to board that flight days after News 3 contacted him and asked him about Lina's death.
Varela's defense argued he has no criminal history and maintains his innocence in an attempt to send him to Florida to stay with his mother before the trial. The judge ultimately said he's a danger to the community and a flight risk.
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