Berlin: Authorities have arrested a 20-year-old Indian man in Germany for allegedly murdering his 19-year-old girlfriend in the US. He faces a first-degree murder charge after the girl was found dead in her Tucson, Arizona, apartment.
The police and emergency crews were called to an apartment near Euclid Avenue and Elm Street around 4 pm on Thursday after the family of the college student Julissa Rubi Salazar requested a welfare check, as reported by New York Post.
Salazar was found unresponsive and was pronounced dead by the Tucson Fire Department crews at the scene. She had suffered traumatic injuries consistent with a homicide, the police said. Investigators identified her boyfriend, 20-year-old Varun Batchigari, as the main suspect. The girl was Authorities strangled, investigators have alleged.
Detectives became suspicious of Batchigari after learning that he allegedly took Salazar’s phone and credit cards and sent a series of messages to her mother, the police said.
Batchigari had gone to Tucson International Airport on the day of Salazar’s death, the investigators later determined. He boarded a flight to Houston before connecting to a flight to Berlin, Germany, with plans to eventually travel to India.
The police obtained an arrest warrant charging him with first-degree murder and kidnapping. Working with federal, local and international authorities, Arizona officials arranged for the youth to be detained after he arrived in Germany, NDTV reported.
Investigators claimed that those who shared the apartment with Salazar roommates had reportedly heard loud screaming coming from her bedroom on August 5, several days before she was found dead. They later texted her to check if she was okay. The giri allegedly replied that she was fine and that the noise had been caused by an argument.
Salazar had reportedly been planning to end her relationship with Batchigari, investigators have come to know. She had previously accused him of sexual assault, although the alleged incident was not reported to police, local media reports said.
Batchigari had reportedly attended the University of Arizona, where he studied business analytics, but was expelled following a fight. He was also facing an unrelated assault case in Pima County, with court records showing a case filed against him in May.
He had also recently lost his job, reportedly leaving him unable to pay his rent and putting his visa status at risk.
Batchigari remains in custody in Germany and is expected to be extradited to Arizona. He will then be booked into the Pima County Adult Detention Center and face the first-degree murder charge.