Authorities allege Darwin David Espinal-Del-Cid posed as Maria Bernarda Popol Garcia by phone while preparing to leave the United States.
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. — In the days after Maria Bernarda Popol Garcia was last known to be alive, messages from her cellphone gave relatives the impression she could still communicate. Bucks County prosecutors now allege the person sending some of those messages was the man charged with killing her.
The alleged digital deception is one of the most consequential parts of the case against Darwin David Espinal-Del-Cid, 27, because authorities say it unfolded while Popol Garcia’s body remained concealed inside the Telford apartment they had shared and while Espinal-Del-Cid prepared to leave the United States. Prosecutors accuse him of killing Popol Garcia after she decided to end their relationship, taking her phone and about $400, posing as her in texts and buying a one-way ticket to Honduras. He was arrested there in August after a roughly five-month international search. He has been charged with criminal homicide and related offenses, all of which remain allegations.
The sequence began before the messages. Investigators say Popol Garcia had told a co-worker on March 6 that she planned to move out and had already begun taking belongings to another apartment. Late that night, Bucks County District Attorney Joe Khan said, she and Espinal-Del-Cid argued while riding together. Prosecutors say Popol Garcia had made clear that she intended to end the relationship. The pair then returned to the North Main Street apartment so she could collect more possessions, according to authorities.
Neighbors reported hearing a loud argument in the early hours of March 7. Investigators identify that as the final period when Popol Garcia was known to be alive. Prosecutors allege Espinal-Del-Cid attacked her with a sharp object, causing a fatal injury to her neck. An autopsy later classified her death as homicide by an edged cutting weapon. Authorities say her body was then moved into a bedroom closet, wrapped or covered and hidden beneath clothing. The details are disturbing, but the public record does not require a more graphic description to explain the criminal allegations.
The case then entered a period in which physical absence and electronic communication appeared to tell different stories. Popol Garcia was no longer seen, but investigators say Espinal-Del-Cid had possession of her Android phone. The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office alleges he used it to impersonate her in text messages, creating the appearance that she remained alive. The Inquirer reported that Khan described the communications as part of an attempt to mislead Popol Garcia’s family while Espinal-Del-Cid moved farther from Pennsylvania.
Prosecutors also accuse him of using deception to obtain or preserve resources needed for travel. Their formal list of charges includes theft by unlawful taking and theft by deception in addition to homicide, possession of an instrument of crime and abuse of a corpse. Authorities say Espinal-Del-Cid took $400 in cash along with Popol Garcia’s cellphone. Financial and airline records later showed that he bought a one-way ticket to Honduras and left the United States on March 9, only days after the argument investigators place near the time of Popol Garcia’s death.
The alleged impersonation mattered because Popol Garcia’s family was trying to understand why they were no longer hearing directly from her. Relatives knew her routines and expected contact. As concern mounted, they eventually contacted police. On March 13, the Palisades Park Police Department in New Jersey received a report from family members who said Popol Garcia had not been heard from for about a week. They told officers she lived in Telford with Espinal-Del-Cid. That report brought police to the apartment after Espinal-Del-Cid had already left the country.
Telford Borough officers went to 139 N. Main Street but initially received no answer. The search continued, and Popol Garcia was later found dead inside the residence. Bucks County officials said she was concealed in a bedroom closet beneath clothing and wrapped in a blanket. She would have turned 23 around the time her body was found. The discovery changed the case immediately from a missing-person inquiry into a homicide investigation and gave detectives a physical scene to compare with the communications and travel records they would later assemble.
Investigators then worked backward through the electronic and financial trail. The Inquirer reported that cellphone information helped authorities trace Espinal-Del-Cid’s movements. Prosecutors identified the one-way flight to Honduras and said he had left on March 9. Investigators also reviewed the communications attributed to Popol Garcia’s phone after her death. Taken together, authorities say, those records supported their contention that Espinal-Del-Cid tried to create time and distance by concealing both the death and his own departure.
The digital evidence does not stand alone in the prosecution’s account. Investigators also relied on statements from Popol Garcia’s family and co-workers, reports from neighbors who heard the argument, the condition and location of her body, autopsy findings and travel documentation. The resulting allegations tell a chronology rather than a single-scene case: preparations to move, an argument, a fatal attack, concealment, misleading messages, a rapid international departure, a missing-person report and then the discovery that turned the family’s fears into a homicide investigation.
Espinal-Del-Cid’s absence created a second investigative problem. Detectives could develop evidence and file charges, but he was outside the jurisdiction where the case would be prosecuted. Bucks County officials said the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and multiple local police departments assisted. Honduran agents with the Technical Agency for Criminal Investigation eventually arrested Espinal-Del-Cid on Aug. 17 in Pespire during a coordinated operation with the FBI.
His arrest did not immediately bring him back to Pennsylvania. Honduran authorities moved him into custody in Tegucigalpa while an extradition proceeding began. Local reporting in Honduras said a judge ordered him held provisionally and set a Sept. 2 hearing to consider evidence tied to the U.S. request. Bucks County prosecutors have said they intend to bring him back to face the pending charges. No reliable public report reviewed through Sept. 28 established that the extradition had been completed or that he had appeared in a Bucks County courtroom.
Popol Garcia had come to the United States from Guatemala and worked at a Latin American restaurant and grocery in Telford. Prosecutors said friends and co-workers remembered her as bright, gentle and kind. Her family told Philadelphia-area news outlets that she worked to help support loved ones and was planning a future apart from Espinal-Del-Cid. The Inquirer reported that relatives described the relationship she was leaving as abusive. That description is part of the family’s account; the homicide case itself will turn on evidence admissible in court.
The phone allegations give the case an unusual layer because they concern not simply what prosecutors say happened inside the apartment, but what they say occurred afterward to obscure it. If proven, the messages would show that the victim’s identity was used to delay recognition of her death while the accused left the country. The theft and deception counts reflect those alleged acts separately from the homicide charge, underscoring that prosecutors view the post-death conduct as an important part of the case rather than mere background.
At the same time, the existence of messages, travel records and investigative statements does not amount to a conviction. Prosecutors will have to establish who sent the relevant communications, how the phone was controlled, what the records show and how those facts connect to the homicide allegations. Espinal-Del-Cid will have the right to challenge the evidence if and when the prosecution moves forward in Pennsylvania. No publicly reported plea or trial has resolved those questions.
Currently, Espinal-Del-Cid is subject to extradition proceedings in Honduras. Popol Garcia’s death remains a homicide, and Bucks County authorities continue to allege that the man she was preparing to leave killed her, concealed her body and used her phone to keep her family from immediately learning what had happened.
Author note: Last updated September 28, 2026.