[Fiscella] Town of Greenwich road crew come across a red suitcase.
[Corticelli] A young female victim, who's bound and gagged.
She was alive when she was in the suitcase.
This kinda thing doesn't happen in Greenwich.
[Noelle] Valerie, she was special.
She was very independent.
She met up with a lot of different people.
Sometimes the people had a hard time when Valerie broke it off.
[Fiscella] It was a, a, quite a list of people.
We had to narrow down this information.
We reviewed the evidence photos,
she was pointing us the way to him.
He's the guy, he's the killer, he did it.
We just gotta prove it.
[narrator] Every day in North America, dozens of people are murdered.
The key to solving the toughest of these homicides
lies in the final 24 hours of the victim's life.
To crack the case, detectives must reconstruct that critical timeline.
The minutes and hours containing evidence.
that can help unlock the mystery...
...and catch the killer.
Greenwich, Connecticut, a peaceful haven
for the Eastern Seaboard's well-to-do.
Just 35 miles north of New York City,
it's a small town with big incomes.
It's the Beverly Hills of, uh, the East Coast.
It's where the rich come to live,
to raise families and it's the best of the best.
It's a haven for tranquility...
...and has one of the lowest crime rates in Connecticut and across the nation.
[narrator] On the morning of February 5, 2019,
that quiet is shattered by a grim discovery.
There was a Town of Greenwich highway crew out
doing some road clean up...
...in a wooded area off of Glenville road.
They discovered a red suitcase.
One of the workers went to pick up the suitcase
and found that it was very heavy.
He doesn't know what's in it and he unzipped it.
[Corticelli] They found a horrific sight.
The body of a young female victim,
who's bound and gagged, crumpled into the suitcase.
Actually barely fitting into the suitcase.
[Fiscella] They're in complete shock, they call the police.
[narrator] 30-year veteran Greenwich senior police detective,
Anthony Fiscella, is assigned to the case.
My supervisor said, "There's a body in a, in a suitcase."
I turned my radio on, I could hear all the chatter.
And it was real.
This kinda thing doesn't happen in Greenwich.
[narrator] Detective Sergeant Pierangelo Corticelli
is also assigned the same grim task.
I'd been on the Greenwich Police Department for nearly three decades.
And although we've had some grisly homicides,
this discovery of this victim in the suitcase
was particularly heinous and something we had not come across before
and it's a real shock.
Around the area of the suitcase,
there's no sign of any struggle whatsoever.
The foliage and the fauna are largely undisturbed,
so it's obvious that this particular site
is just a dump site for the body and the suitcase.
[Fiscella] They moved the body from the location of the murder,
obviously to hide evidence of the crime.
[Corticelli] The victim's body was particularly shocking
in that she was bound at her hands, her knees, her feet,
and her body was very tightly cramped inside this suitcase.
We notice some bruising about her head.
We do not observe any other trauma,
such as stab wounds or gunshot wounds or anything else
that would lead to the circumstances of her death.
She had broken fingernails and, uh, abrasions to her fingers.
It appeared that she fought for her life.
And that there was a good chance that there was DNA
of the unknown suspect caught under her fingernails.
[Corticelli] We swab the body for potential DNA
and then swab the exterior and interior surfaces of the suitcase.
[narrator] Stuck in the underbrush,
the victim had been exposed to low temperatures,
which dipped further after sunset.
[Corticelli] The body was frozen.
It's very difficult for us to, to determine a time since death interval
because of the fact that the freezing retards the decomposition process.
The body could have been there for as many as ten days.
[narrator] The young woman has no identification.
Police have no idea who she is or where she's from.
This is a secluded area, especially at night.
There's not a lot of traffic.
Not much was seen.
[narrator] Police hope the autopsy will reveal more.
The autopsy shows that the victim actually died from asphyxiation
contributed by the position that she was in within the suitcase.
So, that confirms that the victim was alive
when she was in the suitcase, bound and gagged.
A killer who puts someone in a suitcase while they're still alive,
this person is basically saying,
"I'm going to kill you, but I'm also controlling
every last breath that you're taking."
[narrator] To find the killer, police first need to identify the victim.
My investigators began to check Missing Persons reports, uh, nearby.
With that, we received a tip that there was a young lady
that was missing from New Rochelle, New York.
[narrator] At the station, Detective Fiscella asks the missing woman's family
if they can identify the body found in the suitcase.
[Fiscella] Her brother completely lost it,
yelling, "That's my sister, that's my sister."
[narrator] The victim is 25-year-old Valerie Reyes.
Her family reported her missing six days earlier, on January 30.
So, now we know, uh, this young lady's name.
Valerie Reyes, who was she?
[narrator] Valerie's mom tell detectives that her daughter was a talented artist
who worked in a local bookstore.
[Fiscella] Valerie was saving her money because she loved to travel.
Uh, she'd recently gone to Alaska to see the Northern Lights.
She also was trying to be a tattoo artist and open a tattoo business.
[narrator] News of Valerie's murder resonates
in New Rochelle, New York, where she's from
and also 12 miles east in Greenwich, Connecticut, where her body was found.
[Fiscella] With this crime that occurred in this Camelot-type neighborhood,
the phone didn't stop ringing at headquarters, people were afraid.
It put a lot of pressure on my investigators.
We were gonna solve this, no matter what.
[narrator] To do so, detectives need to piece together
the last 24 hours of Valerie's life.
And to do that, they need to determine when she first went missing.
[Corticelli] In talking with Valerie's mother,
we learned that Valerie had last contacted her
at 10:30 p.m. on January 28th.
[narrator] During that phone call with her mother,
Valerie shares what turns out to be a terrifying premonition.
[Fiscella] Valerie was telling her mother,
"Something's wrong, somebody's out to get me,
I think someone's gonna murder me."
Her mother was able to calm her down.
She didn't want her mother to come over.
This was the very night she went missing.
[narrator] Valerie never tells her mother who she's afraid of.
It's the last conversation they ever have.
[Fiscella] After interviewing Valerie's family,
we knew that she must have been killed
between January 28, about 10:30 p.m. at night,
until her body was discovered February 5, at 8 a.m.
That's a very big window, but it's something we can work with.
We team up with the New Rochelle Police Department
and the Westchester County Forensics Unit
and go to Valerie's apartment.
It's a basement apartment in a residential neighborhood.
There's no immediate signs of any struggle or damage,
uh, to any area of the apartment.
All of Valerie's, uh, artwork is hanging on the, uh, wall.
[Fiscella] It's very tidy. Not many things are out of order.
[narrator] But one thing stands out.
We see that the bedding is missing.
So, that's suspicious in itself.
There are several drops of blood.
There's a drop of blood on the mattress,
there's a drop of blood on the wall,
and there's a drop of blood on the floor.
We find Valerie's purse.
Her phone and her bank cards are missing.
Her family also tells us that her laptop is missing,
and her favorite wine glass is broken and in the garbage.
We call for some more forensic help
and get the Luminol.
They start spraying on the walls.
The blood smears just popped up.
In the bathroom, you could actually make out a hand print in the sink.
So, now we know that the killer had cleaned up after themselves.
We needed to check DNA samples.
[Corticelli] The DNA swabs collected at Valerie's apartment
of the latent blood eventually are matched back to Valerie's known DNA.
So, we know we're on the right track in terms of
something occurring out of the normal in her apartment.
[narrator] Detectives ask neighbors if they
noticed anything unusual at Valerie's apartment.
And what they're told is unsettling.
Neighbors said that they had heard Valerie arguing
with an unknown person in the weeks leading up to her disappearance.
[narrator] Detectives check with the victim's family.
[Corticelli] Valerie's family tells us that the arguing
may be connected to Valerie's most recent ex-boyfriend, named Justin.
Valerie and Justin, they had argued a lot.
Valerie had recently blocked him on her cell phone.
One of her friends stated Valerie wanted a open relationship,
and Justin did not want that.
And that he would get upset.
She wanted to end it with him.
[narrator] According to family and neighbors,
just days after they were heard arguing, Valerie went missing.
Did Valerie's ex-boyfriend kill her in a jealous rage?
[Fiscella] Some of our investigators are really suspicious of Justin.
They really felt that Justin was the guy.
[narrator] Just hours after the gruesome discovery
of 24-year-old murder victim, Valerie Reyes,
Greenwich detectives learn that Valerie had been fighting with her ex-boyfriend, Justin.
Valerie and Justin broke up right before she went missing.
Even though Valerie was done with Justin, Justin wasn't done with her.
[narrator] Following her disappearance, Justin contacted Valerie's father
to tell him he was concerned.
Justin indicated he couldn't get ahold of Valerie,
and he wanted Valerie's father to look in her apartment.
As the father did, he found flowers and chocolates
that Justin had left for her, days earlier outside her apartment.
As Valerie's father entered in to her apartment,
he saw a garbage bag filled with Justin's clothes and had Justin's name on it,
as if Valerie had packed his things up.
[narrator] Valerie clearly wanted Justin out of her life.
[Corticelli] The bag of clothing with Justin's name on it
suggests to us that Valerie was getting rid of
everything that belonged to Justin in her apartment,
which oftentimes is a breaking point,
when and if there's going to be violence.
Rejection, termination of relationships,
always sparks intense emotions.
And in fact, the most dangerous time, particularly for women,
is in the three months after a relationship break-up.
At this point, one of the theories that we are operating with
is that Justin may have murdered Valerie in a fit of jealous rage
upon confronting her on the 30th or prior to.
[Fiscella] Valerie had recently dumped him,
but here he was, you know, pleading to find her...
...reporting her missing.
It's not uncommon for suspects in missing persons cases,
to insert themselves into the investigation at the outset.
They want to be aware of progress that's being made
so they had can take steps accordingly to obstruct the investigation.
[narrator] Detectives bring Justin in to ask him
what he knows about his ex-girlfriend's murder.
Our initial interview with Justin is somewhat suspicious
in that he's, uh, very defensive and is not forthcoming.
Justin becomes even more defensive
when we tell him it appears that Valerie was ready to move on with her life.
[narrator] But the more detectives talk to Justin, the less guilty he appears.
[Corticelli] Justin tells us that he was in love with Valerie
and would never ever hurt her.
That he and Valerie were not in fact breaking up,
but were merely taking a break from each other.
And that on January 29, he dropped off chocolates and flowers
and returned on the 30th to check on them.
[narrator] When he found the flowers still there,
he got worried and called Valerie's father.
Justin gives us his cell phone records
and consents to his DNA being tested.
[narrator] Cell tower data shows that besides the time
Justin dropped off and checked on the flowers,
he was either at work or at home when Valerie was most likely murdered.
We were able to corroborate Justin's alibi,
that he was home with his mother during the nights in question.
[Fiscella] Justin's DNA also didn't match
what was in the apartment or in the suitcase.
So, Justin's not our guy,
but we're not done with him yet.
[narrator] Believing that Justin's feelings for Valerie are in fact deep and genuine,
detectives ask him to help them in the investigation.
[Fiscella] Justin was very close with Valerie...
...and knew her well.
He had a lot of information to provide and we needed to get him on our team.
Justin then quickly provided us
her banking information, access to her social media accounts...
...so we could have a inside look at those.
[narrator] As detectives examine Valerie's dating apps,
they uncover a huge number of friends, contacts, and former lovers.
Most have only first names and no contact information.
Any one of them could be Valerie's killer.
So, in going through the information
of Valerie's dating social media apps,
it was, uh, a, quite a list of people.
We had to narrow down this information
and that's when we contacted her close friend.
[narrator] One of Valerie's best friends,
steps up to help detectives sift through Valerie's social contacts.
Valerie, she was special.
She was definitely different from anyone I was ever friends with.
She was very independent, always wanted to think for herself.
Valerie definitely took advantage of being single, I guess you can say?
She took advantage of a lot of dating apps,
met up with a lot of different people
and just was exploring, honestly.
[narrator] According to Valerie's friend,
Valerie had also left other lovers heartbroken and angry.
[Noelle] Valerie definitely didn't like anyone telling her what to do.
A lot of people had a hard time when Valerie broke it off.
I had a feeling it was someone who she had a previous relationship,
who probably didn't want the relationship to end.
[narrator] When police speak to Valerie's friend,
one ex-lover in particular comes to mind.
I do remember when Valerie met this girl on the dating app, named Jordan.
It was a very short relationship.
According to her close friend, Valerie was a free spirit.
She liked her alone time, and Jordan was very clingy.
And that's why Valerie broke it off.
Jordan did not take that very well.
So, I tracked down Jordan.
[narrator] Detectives want to know when
the last time Jordan was in contact with Valerie.
An hour after Valerie's last phone call with her mother,
she sent a final text message to an unknown number.
Was it to Jordan?
The last text that was on Valerie's phone
was on January 28th at 11:35 p.m.
Valerie said she was going to bed.
Could that text have been to Jordan?
Showing that Valerie was home and alone and vulnerable?
[narrator] Valerie may have let Jordan in that night,
but Jordan may have had mixed motives,
still feeling the sting of Valerie's rejection.
[narrator] Just days after identifying the body of 24-year-old, Valerie Reyes,
detectives have questions for her ex-lover, Jordan.
So, I spoke to Jordan. Jordan said she cared for Valerie very much.
That she would never harm her.
Jordan said that it was just a brief affair.
[narrator] Detectives wanna know where Jordan was at the time of the murder.
In reviewing phone records, we were able to show
that Jordan had not been at Valerie's recently.
And that was corroborated in the investigation.
[narrator] Detectives find that Jordan has an alibi
for the entire time of Valerie's disappearance and murder.
[Fiscella] And therefore, Jordan was eliminated.
[narrator] The killer's identity remains a mystery.
Investigators also confirm that Valerie's final text,
sent at 11:35, was not sent to Jordan, but to another friend.
More importantly, the text verifies that Valerie
was still alive at 11:35 p.m., an hour after she spoke to her mother.
but it's not the last time Valerie's phone was used that night.
When we further review Valerie's phone records,
we see that at 3:00 AM,
her phone is turned into airplane mode
and that the phone does not receive
any further text messages or communications
from that point forward.
[narrator] Detectives consider whether someone else
switched off Valerie's phone.
Then an hour and a half later,
switched it back on.
At 4:33 AM, someone logged into
her banking account from her phone...
...switching her phone back on from airplane mode.
This banking app can only be accessed
via fingerprint,
and that is Valerie's fingerprint,
either from her or someone that has access to her fingerprint.
[narrator] Detectives don't know if Valerie
was still alive at 4:33 AM,
or if the killer was using her fingerprint
after she was already dead.
Once Valerie's fingerprint opened her banking app,
that same person checked her account balance.
Then just 27 minutes later at 5:00 AM,
her bank card is used to withdraw cash from her account.
[Fiscella] There are four ATM transactions
between January 29th and February 2nd,
all from ATMs using Valerie's debit card
for a total of $5,350 withdrawn.
[narrator] Detectives examine the ATM surveillance videos.
[Corticelli] Based on the dates and the times
of the withdrawals a the Chase Bank,
we now get access to the bank surveillance video
for the dates and times in question.
[narrator] The ATM footage is chilling.
[Fiscella] At 5:00 AM on January 29th
at a Chase Bank in New Rochelle,
a Honda pulls up.
A person wearing a black ski mask,
a black trench coat, and black sneakers gets out.
Subject enters the bank and withdraws $1,000.
[narrator] And the person does it using Valerie's bank card and PIN number.
Investigators suspect this is Valerie's killer.
Although we can't see the person's face,
we do know that it appears to be a male,
and this then leads us back to Justin
because he's approximately the same size and stature
as this male who exits the Honda,
and he already had access to Valerie's banking information,
based on his own admissions.
[narrator] Suddenly, Valerie's boyfriend, Justin,
is back in the spotlight as a potential suspect.
But to be sure, detective's need to track the car
to find out who was driving it.
The footage is too grainy to read a license plate,
but we can tell which way the car leaves,
and that is west.
So we needed to track the movement of this vehicle
and try to identify a license plate.
This is not an easy task.
Thankfully, we have Detective Sergeant
Pier Corticelli on the case.
This is his specialty.
By following the vehicle through the various surveillance videos
within the city of New Rochelle,
we were able to track the vehicle
until it passed an intersection
where a license plate reader camera was in operation.
This was a huge break and was able to successfully
identify the vehicle and the license plate.
[narrator] With the vehicle's license plate,
detectives turn their attention to identifying the driver.
We feel we may be bearing down on the killer right now,
and we need to find out who that vehicle belongs to
and where it is.
We've determined that this vehicle is a rental car,
based out of a location in Queens, New York City.
We confirmed that the renter's name
is Marco Padro.
[narrator] It's not Justin
but someone who wasn't on anybody's radar,
28-year-old Marco Padro.
He doesn't appear in any of Valerie's contacts.
Is he the man in the mask responsible for Valerie Reyes
suffocating in that red suitcase?
[Fiscella] A background check on Marco revealed
he had no criminal record.
We learned that Marco was the security guard
at an apartment building in Queens, New York,
and that he lives in Queens where the car was rented.
[narrator] As detective's work to confirm the times
of Marco's vehicle rental,
they uncover another surprise.
Their new suspect, Marco, wasn't driving the car.
In going through the rental car records...
...we discovered that...
...there was another person
that was an authorized user on Marco's account,
and he had actually used the car three days earlier.
And that person's name is Javier Da Silva Rojas.
So now we need to find Javier Da Silva Rojas.
[narrator] Police are closing in
on Javier Da Silva Rojas.
They believe he's the masked man
who attacked 24-year-old Valerie Reyes,
stole her money, and left her to die.
Upon digging deeper into Javier's information,
we find out that he's a Venezuelan student
who has overstayed his visa and is subject to deportation.
[narrator] Detectives use the rental car agreement
to locate Javier's apartment address in Queens.
[Corticelli] We were able to get surveillance video
from Javier's condo complex
as well as from the rental car location in New York City.
We can see from the surveillance video at Javier's building
Javier, carrying a duffle bag,
leaves on January 28th at 10:50 PM.
Shortly after leaving his apartment building,
we see Javier on the surveillance video
at the rental car location
renting the Honda and exiting from that location.
So at this point, we know that Javier
and only Javier rented that rental car,
and Javier went to New Rochelle
in that rental car during the time in question,
and it's consistent with the timeline
from the video surveillance.
He returns the rental car
to the garage at 9:11
and then enters his building at 9:43.
[narrator] Detectives now believe that Javier
was driving the same car they tracked
heading towards Valerie's apartment
on the night she was murdered.
But they still don't have any hard evidence
to prove he's the killer.
This is all circumstantial. We need more.
[narrator] Although detectives don't have evidence
to charge Javier with murder,
they have to move quickly to make the arrest.
Javier has ties to Venezuela and Mexico
where he could run at any moment.
[Fiscella] He's a flight risk,
and he's possibly a murderer.
We felt if we could get Javier in custody
on the larceny charges,
then we would be able to hold him
for further investigation
on the murder.
My team was down at the building
waiting for Javier.
He came out going to do his laundry.
My guys jumped him,
took him down,
he was in total shock.
Once in custody,
he agrees to be interviewed.
We start with the banking information.
Javier pretends that he doesn't know what we're talking about.
We tell him that we know he used this bank card
to take this money out of this account in New Rochelle.
Javier says he found the bank card
on a sidewalk in Manhattan.
And he also found the pin for it
on a piece of paper next to it.
[narrator] Javier admits he's a thief
but denies he had anything to do
with Valerie's murder.
He claims he doesn't even know her.
[Fiscella] We then go back to her close friend
to see if Valerie had dated a guy named Javier.
When the detectives asked me about Javier,
I remember just being very shocked
because Javier was the previous relationship
before she was dating Justin.
[narrator] Valerie's friends and family confirm
that Valerie dated a guy named Javier,
but none of them ever met him,
and they don't know his last name.
[Fiscella] We had to prove that Javier
was the same as ex-boyfriend Javier,
and none of her family had a picture of him.
[narrator] But once again, Valerie's friend
is able to help out.
I found the social media account of Javier in my iPad,
and there was a drawing that Valerie did of Javier.
I thought that was weird.
[Fiscella] Her friend tells us
that Javier has a social media account
where his profile picture is an actual drawing
that Valerie had sketched herself.
We reviewed the evidence photos
from Valerie's apartment,
and we clearly see the portrait
of Javier
hanging on the wall.
Now we're able to compare that portrait
of Javier,
Valerie's known ex-boyfriend,
to the passport photo of Javier Da Silva,
the renter of that rental car.
That's the same guy, that's him.
I remember Valerie telling me she met this guy off of a dating app.
She thought he was very handsome.
They dated about a year.
She ended the relationship
'cause she felt that Javier was very needy, very clingy.
He didn't have a job, and he
just was very reliant on Valerie.
She blocked him, and she just moved on.
After we press him some more,
he admits that he had actually dated Valerie...
...approximately a year earlier.
But he's still denying any involvement.
He swears he hasn't been to New Rochelle
or seen Valerie since 2018.
[Corticelli] We know from the video surveillance
and other information at this point
that Javier is lying to us.
[narrator] But if detectives can't prove he's lying,
their suspect could walk away.
[Fiscella] We had enough to prove that
Javier Da Silva was Javier, the boyfriend,
and he had used Valerie's bank card.
We believe Javier killed her.
We just need the evidence to prove it.
[narrator] Just six days after the body of Valerie Reyes is discovered,
detectives have a suspect in custody,
Javier Da Silva Rojas admits he knew Valerie
and stole her money,
but he denies having anything to do with her murder.
Detectives aren't buying it.
We know we have enough evidence from the larceny charge
to get a search warrant for his apartment
and a search warrant for his DNA
and for his phone.
[narrator] Investigators focus on location data
recorded in Javier's phone.
Javier's phone records shows him present
in New Rochelle, approximately 200 feet
from Valerie's apartment at 12:00 am on the 29th.
This is just a half hour
after Valerie's last known outgoing text message
to her friend saying goodnight.
So now we know that Javier is at the scene of the crime
at the probable time of the crime.
[Fiscella] Javier's cell phone pings in Greenwich
at 6:53 AM and 7:24 AM.
This is the window where he dumps the red suitcase
on the side of the road.
We've taken his DNA, and we're awaiting
the test results to come back.
In the meantime, we go back to Javier
with the information we've gotten from his phone,
but he's still denying any involvement.
We have an idea as to how to turn him around in our questioning,
and we decide to show him some of the crime scene photos.
It's stock and trade in homicide interviews
to show photographs of the victim to the suspect,
and even the most hardened offender
is in many cases ill-prepared
for the visceral reaction they'll have
once confronted with these very visceral powerful images.
[Corticelli] When Javier sees pictures of Valerie's body
and what we think he did to her,
he finally breaks down.
[narrator] But what Javier tells investigators
isn't the story they're expecting.
Javier now tells us that he in fact
was at Valerie's apartment
and that they had consensual rough sex
in which she bumped her head and went unconscious.
[Fiscella] He says he checked her breath, she wasn't breathing.
He said he didn't know what to do.
He was afraid.
[Corticelli] Javier says he panicked
and put her body into a suitcase
that he found in the garbage outside her apartment.
and drove her in the rental car...
...until reaching Greenwich, Connecticut,
at which point, he disposed of the suitcase
and left going back towards New York City.
Javier told us her death was an accident.
You know, he's full of baloney.
Javier's story doesn't make sense.
If a person's unconscious,
you don't gotta tape their mouth from nose to chin.
[Corticelli] Javier continued, in our opinion,
to be lying to us.
We just needed more evidence at this point to prove it.
[narrator] A search of Javier's home
puts more physical evidence in investigators hands.
During the search of Javier's home,
we find a laptop belonging to Valerie
as well as other missing articles from her residence.
[narrator] Detectives discover
that with the money he stole from Valerie,
Javier bought himself a new computer.
Still, he insists Valerie's death was an accident.
It's difficult to understand just the compulsion
that psychopaths and sociopaths have to lie.
Regardless of the overwhelming,
unassailable evidence before them,
they will continue to lie
because it's... It's a game,
and police have to be that much better at the game.
[Corticelli] When we finally obtain the DNA results,
we find Javier's DNA on the suitcase,
under her fingernails and in her apartment.
[narrator] Javier's skin found under Valerie's nails
proves that Valerie did not die
when she struck her head during consensual sex.
[Fiscella] She fought, she fought for her life.
He's the guy, he's the killer, he did it.
The DNA just proved it.
Once Javier sees the DNA match...
...he finally comes clean, tells the whole story.
Javier entered the country on a student visa in 2017.
He had already overstayed his visa
at the time that he began dating Valerie in 2018.
He had hoped that his relationship with Valerie
would lead to marriage
so that he would be able to stay in this country legally.
Instead of marriage,
Valerie ended the relationship with Javier
after just three months.
In January 2019,
Javier was unemployed,
living in an apartment where he was behind in his rent,
and he became more and more desperate
and had built up a lot of resentment towards Valerie
and the fact that their relationship was ended.
[narrator] Detectives finally understand what happened
to Valerie Reyes in the final hours of her life.
[Fiscella] At 10:30 PM on January 28th 2019,
Valerie called her mother, upset.
[Corticelli] An hour later, Valerie sends her final text message
to a friend saying goodnight.
[Fiscella] Just before 11:00 PM,
Javier had rented a car and drove to Valerie's.
12:00 midnight to 3:00 AM...
...Javier entered Valerie's apartment.
She fought, and she fought for her life.
They had some kind of sex...
...probably not consensual.
[Corticelli] We know that there's trauma to Valerie's head
that likely rendered her semi-conscious or unconscious.
Then he taped her mouth and additionally,
bound her knees, legs, and arms
with packing twine.
He then went outside, smoked a cigarette...
...spotted a red suitcase outside
and brought it back into the apartment.
And he stuffed Valerie inside of it.
[Corticelli] And then he does his best to clean up the mess.
He removes and disposes of the sheets that are on the bed.
[Fiscella] While Valerie's knocked out,
Javier then uses Valerie's thumbprint
to check her bank balance
at 4:20 AM,
then 4:33 AM.
[narrator] Javier seals Valerie into the suitcase
and loads her into his car.
[Fiscella] Half an hour later, he uses her bank card
to withdraw $1,000
from a Chase Bank ATM in New Rochelle, New York.
[narrator] Sometime between 6:53 AM and 7:24 AM,
Javier dumps Valerie in a forest
by the side of a Greenwich, Connecticut road.
She suffocated inside the suitcase.
At 9:11 AM, he returns the rental car in Queens,
close to his home.
On September 23, 2021,
Javier Da Silva Rojas pleads guilty
to kidnapping resulting in death,
and he's sentenced to 30 years in prison.
[Fiscella] Valerie helped solve her own case
by drawing that portrait of Javier.
She was pointing us the way to him,
and six days from the time we found her body,
we caught Javier Da Silva.
She was taken way too young at 24 years old.
She had her whole life ahead of her.
This young, beautiful,
amazing, talented, artistic,
strongly independent young lady,
who wanted to travel and live her own life.
[Noelle] I do think about Valerie,
it's only the good things, all the good memories,
all the good times.
I know for a fact that when my daughter's older,
I'm always gonna talk about Valerie,
just teach her who Valerie was,
and so she'll always know who Valerie is.
[Corticelli] This was a real tragedy
to a young woman who was in the prime of her life.
In homicide investigations and in forensics,
we like to say that to the living, we owe respect,
and to the dead, we owe only the truth.