​Ex-UK Doctor Arrested in Ecuador Over Colombian Model’s Suitcase Murder

BOGOTÁ — A disgraced former British doctor and convicted serial stalker has been intercepted by Interpol at an Ecuadorian airport, accused of the horrific “suitcase murder” of a glamorous Colombian model.

​Matthew Foster-Smith, 46, was captured at Quito International Airport following a massive multi-agency international manhunt. He is currently facing fast-track extradition proceedings back to Colombia, where prosecutors intend to charge him with aggravated femicide and the systematic destruction of crime scene evidence.

​The arrest follows the gruesome discovery of 36-year-old model Natalia Villalba Angarita. Her decomposing body was found squeezed inside a grey suitcase in the bathroom of a luxury, seventh-floor rented apartment in Bogotá’s upscale Chapinero district. In a chilling attempt to mask the scent of death and wash away forensic clues, the killer had left the bathroom shower running.

​The grim scene was uncovered by cleaners on June 22 after the rental agreement expired. Investigators believe Angarita, originally from Cúcuta, was brutally slaughtered on June 18.

​The ‘Ice Cream’ Alibi

​Before his dramatic arrest while allegedly attempting to buy a plane ticket back to Europe, Foster-Smith strictly denied any involvement. Speaking to British media, the former medical professional offered a bizarrely casual alibi centered around England’s World Cup run.

​”I was watching England versus Croatia on a big screen in an Irish bar, so it wasn’t me,” Foster-Smith claimed, adding that he later went to a shopping center, bought an ice cream, watched another football match, and went to bed alone.

​However, Colombian prosecutors have utterly dismantled his timeline. The Technical Investigation Corps (CTI) revealed that phone tracking, building access logs, and CCTV footage put the Briton squarely at the scene of the crime.

​”Evidence indicates he entered the apartment where the victim was alone, physically assaulted her until she died, and manipulated the body to place it inside a suitcase,” a spokesperson for the Bogotá Sectional Office stated.

​Compromising security footage reportedly captures the disgraced doctor carrying bloodied bedsheets to a communal laundry area before fleeing the building.

​A History of Depravity

​This is far from Foster-Smith’s first brush with the law. The former physician boasts a sinister criminal record in the United Kingdom, defined by a pattern of escalating violence and obsession against women.

​In 2020, he was struck off the medical register and jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty to a campaign of stalking against an ex-partner and distributing revenge pornography. Upon his release, he struck again. In October 2024, Bournemouth Crown Court sentenced him to over two years in prison for relentlessly stalking a woman in Dorset—loitering outside her workplace and violating a strict restraining order. At the time, UK police noted his victim’s life had been entirely “destroyed” by his terrifying behavior.

​Justice for Natalia

​The victim’s heartbroken mother, Claudia, revealed she sounded the alarm on June 19 when her daughter—who had lived in the capital for 17 years—suddenly stopped answering her daily phone calls.

​”All we want is for the truth to come out,” she wept, as forensic teams continue to hold Natalia’s body for autopsies.

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​If convicted under Colombia’s strict anti-femicide laws, the British ex-doctor faces a mandatory sentence of between 40 and 50 years in a maximum-security prison.

​The horrific case has triggered nationwide outrage, drawing dark parallels to the infamous 2023 murder of Colombian DJ Valentina Trespalacios, who was similarly stuffed into a suitcase by her American boyfriend, John Poulos. Poulos was later sentenced to 42 years behind bars. Local activists are demanding that Foster-Smith face an identical fate.