Police say the suspect left the United States as investigators searched the couple’s downtown Norfolk apartment.
NORFOLK, Va. — A U.S. Navy reservist has been charged with murder after police found his wife dead inside a kitchen freezer at the couple’s apartment in downtown Norfolk on Feb. 5, and investigators say he then fled overseas as the case unfolded.
The case quickly moved from a missing-person report to a homicide investigation with international reach. Norfolk police identified the victim as Lina M. Guerra, 39, and charged her husband, David Varela, 38, with first-degree murder. Court records cited in local reports say Varela is also accused of concealing a dead body and may have boarded a flight to Hong Kong around the time officers searched the apartment. The search has drawn in local police, federal investigators and prosecutors now trying to bring him back to Virginia.
Police said Guerra was reported missing on Feb. 4 after relatives had gone weeks without hearing from her. Her family later told local news outlets that they were used to speaking with her every day and that the sudden silence alarmed them. Officers went to a residence in the 300 block of East Main Street, in the Icon apartment building downtown, on Feb. 5 while following up on the missing-person case. Inside, they found Guerra unresponsive and later discovered her body in the kitchen freezer, according to court records described by local media and a federal affidavit cited by Law&Crime. Her cellphone was also found at the apartment, and Varela’s Tesla was reportedly still in the parking area. Norfolk police said she was pronounced dead at the scene. Five days later, after an autopsy by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, authorities formally ruled her death a homicide.
Police have released only a limited account of what they believe happened inside the apartment, and they have not publicly described a motive or the exact cause of death. That leaves major questions unanswered, including when Guerra was killed and what evidence investigators collected before Varela left the country. But public statements and court descriptions have sketched out a basic picture. Authorities said Varela was an active reservist with the Navy, and local reports said his absence also raised concern at work because he stopped answering calls from his immediate supervisor. Investigators later learned he had likely boarded an international flight on or about Feb. 5, according to the affidavit cited in news reports. Law enforcement also used location data from WhatsApp that appeared to place him in Hong Kong, those reports said. Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi said publicly that his office was working through international channels to locate Varela and seek his return to face the charges.
The family’s account added a painful layer to the timeline. Relatives in Colombia told local reporters that they last had normal contact with Guerra in mid-January, well before the official missing-person report. Paola Ramirez, identified as a sister-in-law, said the family grew suspicious after Varela gave them an explanation they could not verify. According to WTKR, Ramirez said he told relatives that Guerra had been sentenced to five years in prison for shoplifting. The station said it found no record supporting that claim. Family members also said he sent a photo that appeared to show Guerra in an orange jail uniform, presenting it as proof that he had visited her. The relatives said the story did not make sense and only deepened their fears as days passed without direct contact from Guerra herself. That gap between mid-January and early February is now one of the most important stretches in the case, because it may define when she was last known to be alive and when investigators believe the killing happened.
Friends and relatives have remembered Guerra as a warm and gentle woman whose life was tightly connected to loved ones in Colombia. One relative told reporters that there was not a single day without calls, texts or voice messages. Her family has also used the coverage to describe what they say was controlling behavior inside the marriage. WTKR reported that relatives accused Varela of isolating Guerra, limiting her ability to work, study, make friends or go out alone. Ramirez said through a translator that there had been violence before, a claim that has not been detailed in court filings made public so far. Those allegations may become important later if prosecutors try to show a history of abuse or coercion, but at this stage they remain part of the family’s account rather than a full public record presented in court. What is public is the emotional toll. Guerra’s aunt, Elizabeth Echavarria, told local television in Spanish that she was devastated by the death of her niece and described the loss in simple, blunt terms that captured the family’s grief.
The legal path ahead is likely to be slower and more complicated than a typical homicide case because the suspect is not in custody and may be outside the United States. Norfolk police announced the murder charge on Feb. 12, a week after officers found Guerra’s body. Local reporting said an additional count involving concealment of a dead body appeared in federal court documents. Prosecutors must now do more than prove the case. They first need to secure Varela’s arrest and return. Fatehi said publicly that extradition cases are rare for his office, and local outlets reported that investigators were working with federal authorities and international partners, including Interpol, as they tried to track him down. The exact status of any arrest warrant outside the United States has not been fully laid out in public statements, and officials have not said when they expect a court hearing in Virginia. Until Varela is located, the case remains in a holding pattern, with investigators building the timeline and preserving evidence while the search continues.
Even with many unanswered questions, the known details have left a stark picture in downtown Norfolk and among Guerra’s relatives abroad. The case began with a family asking why a woman who called every day had suddenly gone quiet. It moved to a search of a downtown apartment, then to a homicide ruling, and then to an international manhunt. Neighbors and friends have spoken about the shock of learning what police say they found in such an ordinary setting, a kitchen inside a residential building in the center of the city. Relatives, meanwhile, have had to grieve from another country while also following fragments of the case through translated interviews, police bulletins and television reports. Their statements have given the investigation its human frame, not just a suspect on the run, but a woman whose absence was noticed quickly because her family knew her habits so well and refused to stop asking where she was.
As of March 16, 2026, Varela had been charged but had not been publicly reported in custody. The next major milestone is his location and arrest, followed by any extradition action that would bring him to Norfolk to face the homicide case.