Shock in Puerto Rico: a boxer is accused of the heinous femicide of his pregnant lover

Porto Rico experience moments of uncertainty, indignation and tension after the boxer Felix verdejo handed over to federal forces after being accused of having killed Keishla Rodríguez, a 27-year-old woman who was in love with the boxer and expecting one of his children.

A criminal complaint filed by the FBI accused Verdejo of hitting Keishla Rodríguez on the face and inject it with a syringe with an unidentified substance acquired in a social housing complex.

The prosecution indicated that later the assailant tied the victim’s hand and foot and tied him a big block before throw it in a pond from the island’s capital from a bridge on Thursdays at 8:30 a.m.

Then the 27-year-old boxer shot Rodriguez’s body of the bridge, determined the complaint. At the same time, the document assures that a witness, who has not been identified, helped Verdejo to kidnap and assassinate Rodríguez.

The woman’s body was found in the lagoon on Saturday a few days after the news of her disappearance was announced. The victim was identified on Sunday thanks to his dental record., reported the Institute of Forensic Sciences of Puerto Rico.

Two days after Rodríguez disappeared, Verdejo was questioned by police, his vehicle was impounded, and a warrant was issued to investigate the calls made from his cell phone. In this first face to face with justice, Verdejo and his lawyers declined to comment., and the police said that initially the boxer refused to cooperate and answer questions.

Rodríguez’s family, meanwhile, said that she was expecting a boxer’s son. Keila Ortiz, the victim’s mother, assured reporters her daughter called her on the phone before disappearing on Thursday and told her that Verdejo was going home to see the results of a pregnancy test.

“I said, ‘Be careful’. Because he had already threatened her not to have her (the baby) ”, because it would affect his career and his family, Ortiz Rivera said in an interview with Wapa Televisión.

Verdejo He is married but knew Rodríguez from high school and they had kept in touch, the parents of the victim said. They reported her missing after she failed to report for work at a veterinary cosmetician.

Until there were no arrests in connection with the case but the police said they had already identified the perpetrator and were waiting to collect all the evidence.

The deceased’s sister, Bereliz nichole, explained via Facebook that “Soon” will announce where the revival will take place. Many people demonstrate on the bridge from where Rodríguez’s body was thrown into the lagoon where they will make “a country cry that will be heard around every corner. For those who are no longer there and for those who will come ”.

Verdejo (27-2, 17 KOs) represented Puerto Rico at the 2012 Olympics, the same year he moved to professionalism in the lightweight division. His career was temporarily affected after suffering a motorcycle accident in 2016 which sent him to hospital.

The case generated outrage in Puerto Rico, where the charred body of a woman was recently found after filing a domestic violence complaint, which was dismissed by a judge. A Supreme Court magistrate has announced an investigation into the decision.

The Governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Pierluisi, said of recent acts of violence on the island that reiterates its “commitment to the fight against gender-based violence and continue to put action and resources where the word is, ”while revealing that the Budget Oversight Board (JSF) has reduced the allocation for addressing gender-based violence.

“It is essential that we maintain this current level of focus on the crime of gender-based violence that so much loss, dismay and anguish brings to our society. There should be no doubt that we are in a state of emergency due to gender-based violencesaid in a statement.

“The pain, the rage and the indignation that we feel that whenever we witness a crime of gender-based violence, we must stay alive within us so as not to rest on our responsibility to protect, prevent and abolish this scourge, as well as to bring justice to all the victims. Every day, we continue to work to create a society that values ​​life, respects human dignity and rejects violence in all its forms. We must fight this battle until we win it “, he condemned.

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