A British man has been arrested in Ecuador after the body of a woman was found inside a suitcase despite him telling The Sun newspaper that he was watching England game at the time. Local authorities told the British news agency, PA Media, that Matthew Ashley Foster-Smith is alleged to have caused the death of 36-year-old Natalia Villalba in an apartment in the Chico neighborhood of Bogota, Colombia, on June 18. But the 46-year-old from Bournemouth reportedly rang The Sun a day before his arrest and said: “I was watching England versus Croatia on a big screen in an Irish bar, so it wasn’t me.” He added, “After the match I went into the shopping center, I mooched about, bought an ice cream, and came back later for the later games.” England’s World Cup match took place on June 17. The Sun reported that the suspect made a second call to its newsdesk on Friday, before his arrest, with a source telling the newspaper that he was located via the phone calls he had made. The source said there were fears the suspect was trying to buy a ticket to travel to Europe. A post on the official X account of the Attorney General’s Office in Colombia said Foster-Smith is suspected of beating Villalba to death before placing her body in a suitcase, trying to conceal what happened and fleeing the scene. Dorset Police are said to have been among the authorities that assisted with locating him before he was held at Quito International Airport in Ecuador.
