long ago, the main suspect of the horrendous crime of Natalia Villalba He was investigated for other crimes.
For some of them, the police raided one of his homes, and what he found further fuels suspicions that it could have been the author of the murder of Villalba.
The model She was found dead last Monday, June 22, inside a suitcase who was under a shower, in a temporary rental apartment.
Intimate images of an ex-partner, pornographic material and sinister conversations: what they found in the raid
In 2020, Bournemouth Crown Court sentenced Matthew Foster-Smith, a doctor from now 46 years, to one year and six months in prison for crimes related to harassment to an ex-partner.
After leaving prison, the man harassed again, this time another ex-partner, between May and September 2023. The incident led the United Kingdom authorities to issue a search and arrest warrant throughout the country.
The investigation gained new momentum after a friend of the suspect handed over messages and photographs sent by Foster-Smith to police. According to Nick Robinson, the British man often shared violent plans involving women and, after the end of a relationship, claimed that he intended to get an ax to attack them.
The friend also claimed that Foster-Smith had autism spectrum disorder and emotionally immature behavior, a condition he said worsened after the death of his parents when he was 30. The defense would later use this argument to try to obtain his release, but the request was rejected.
In October 2025, Foster-Smith was finally sentenced again, this time to two years and two months in prison. After serving his sentence, he was placed on a supervised release regime, under which measures were imposed such as keeping his distance from the victims, periodically informing the police of his address and not using electronic devices to exchange messages.
Afterwards, managed to leave the United Kingdom and travel to Colombiasince at that time there was no international arrest warrant against him.
Due to these sentences, the authorities also They raided a Foster-Smith apartment located in the town of Poole.
In the procedure, they seized several cell phones, memory cards, USB drives and other storage devices.
According to forensic analysis, These objects contained intimate images of an ex-partner used to harass, intimidate and threaten her, as well as pornographic material. posted on social media and sexually explicit content shared with another man. The discovery of the material led to Foster-Smith’s expulsion from the official register of doctors.
The brutal murder of model Natalia Villalba
On Monday, June 22, a domestic worker went to perform cleaning tasks in a temporary rental apartment in the exclusive neighborhood El Chicó, located in the north of Bogotá.
Upon arrival, he heard the sound of water from the shower and believed there was still a guest. The horror she found after entering the bathroom left her in shock: a half-open suitcase with the corpse of a woman inside.
She desperately called the police, the authorities came to the scene and sealed the crime scene. According to the Colombian newspaper The Timethere were two of the woman’s passports on the property, one expired and the other valid, which allowed her to be quickly identified.
The victim, Natalia Villalba Angarita, had 36 years and was born in Cúcuta, but lived in Bogotá since 2009. On social networks she showed her double facet of model and designer.
The security cameras at the location recorded the presence of two men, both already identified by investigators, one from the United Kingdom—Foster-Smith—and another from the United States.
Foster-Smith would have been the last person to see Natalia alive. The records of the immigration entities indicate that he entered the Colombian capital on a flight that came from London on June 16 and that, apparently, he left the country through the border with Ecuador on Sunday, June 21.
Was arrested on Friday, June 26, at the Mariscal Sucre International Airport in Quito, from where it is believed that he was trying to board a flight to the English capital.
A day before, in statements to the newspaper The Sun, He claimed he had nothing to do with the crime. from Villalba. According to him, at the time of the tragedy, he was not in the apartment.
«I was watching the match between England and Croatia on a giant screen in an Irish bar, so it wasn’t me. After the match I went to the shopping centre, walked around, bought an ice cream and came back later for the next matches,» he said.
However, as reported by the same outlet, the England match began at 3:00 p.m. in Bogotá on June 17, and police believe the murder occurred between 11:30 and 5:30 p.m. on June 18.
