Convicted Stalker Arrested For Killing Influencer Natalia Villalba

A convicted stalker has been arrested in connection with the killing of Colombian influencer Natalia Villalba, found stuffed inside a suitcase in a Bogota apartment. The suspect insists he couldn't have done it. He says he was watching an England World Cup match at the time, drinking at an Irish bar with strangers around him as proof. Police tracked him across two countries before an Interpol Red Notice finally caught up with him in Ecuador. His alibi, though, has a problem, and it comes down to a single missed date.

The Suspect Behind the Killing 

Natalia Villalba had been staying in a rented apartment in one of Bogotá's wealthier neighborhoods for nearly three weeks before anyone realized something was wrong. She was supposed to check out on June 21. Instead, a cleaner walked in the next day and found her body stuffed inside a suitcase in the bathroom, with the shower still running.

Colombian prosecutors named Matthew Ashley Foster-Smith, a 46-year-old British man, as the suspect, accusing him of aggravated femicide and tampering with evidence. Investigators allege he entered the apartment while Villalba was alone, physically assaulted her until she died, then staged the scene and placed her body in the suitcase before fleeing the country entirely. An international manhunt involving authorities in Colombia, Ecuador, and the UK eventually tracked him down in Ecuador, where Interpol's Red Notice caught up with him.

This wasn't his first run-in with the law. Foster-Smith had already served jail time twice in the UK for stalking, raising hard questions about how someone with that record was free to travel internationally at all.

The Alibi That Doesn't Add Up

Before his arrest, Foster-Smith called The Sun himself, insisting he had nothing to do with it. "I was watching England versus Croatia on a big screen in an Irish bar, so it wasn't me," he said, adding that he'd wandered a shopping center afterward, bought an ice cream, and gone back later for the next match. He called the paper a second time the day before police caught him, a detail investigators reportedly used to help locate him.

There's a problem with the timeline. Colombian authorities say Villalba was killed on June 18. England's World Cup match against Croatia was played the day before, on June 17. The alibi he offered up doesn't actually line up with the date he's accused of committing the crime.

Where the Case Stands Now

Colombian prosecutors say their own evidence directly contradicts his version of events. Foster-Smith is expected to face extradition proceedings to Colombia, where he'll be formally charged with aggravated femicide alongside evidence tampering. Villalba's mother told Colombian radio she'd last spoken to her daughter just six days before the body was discovered, describing her as a hard-working woman who'd been trying to build a better life. Her cousin, speaking to LBC after the arrest, said simply that the family was relieved police had found the person responsible, and that he would "pay what he owes."