Man Killed Pregnant Sister and Faked Suicide Note Because She Was an 'Embarrassment,' Police Say
A Texas man who allegedly told police he believed his pregnant sister was an “embarrassment” to the family has been charged with her murder after police say he confessed to strangling her and staging the death to look like a suicide.
Eduardo Arevalo, 19, was arrested in the death of his sister Viridiana Arevalo, 23, shortly after her body was found in an alley Sunday in the Dallas suburb The Colony, The Colony Police Department said in a news release.
Police had been searching for Viridiana since she was reported missing on Dec. 17, and once her body was found, they used video evidence obtained from cameras near the scene to focus on her brother.
Family members initially believed that Viridiana intended to harm herself, as they found a note amid her disappearance indicating she planned to commit suicide, KDFW reported.
But police say Arevalo later confessed to writing the note himself, as he allegedly wanted her death to look like a suicide.
He told detectives that he was embarrassed by his eight-months-pregnant sister, and did not think she would be a good mother to her baby girl, police spokesman Brian Lee told the Associated Press.
Arevalo also allegedly told authorities that “it would be better off that she wasn’t here,” according to KDFW.
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He and Viridiana got into an argument on Dec. 16, which prompted Arevalo to later strangle her as she sat on the couch at their family home, according to the arrest affidavit obtained by KXAS.
After killing her, he put her body in his car and drove it to an area outside The Colony where it “would not be discovered,” police said.
He later returned to the area to fetch her body and bring it back to The Colony, where he reportedly dumped it an alley, according to police.
“As the week went on, Eduardo stated that the wanted his family to know where Viri was at so he went and picked up her body and brought her back Sunday morning in the early morning hours and dumped her body in the alleyway,” Sgt. Aaron Woodward of The Colony Police Department told KDFW.
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Arevalo, who, according to Lee, does not have an attorney, was charged with capital murder and tampering with/fabricating physical evidence, The Colony Jail’s online records show.
Despite his reported confessions to police, brother Diego Arevalo believes in his sibling’s innocence.
“It doesn’t make sense that my brother would do something like this,” he told KXAS. “He was either set up or something happened.”
