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On Monday, May 6, the state medical examiner said the official cause of death for Valerie Reyes, 24, of New Rochelle, was "homicidal asphyxia," and the manner of death was a homicide.
Reyes was found dead, bound and stuffed inside a suitcase in a wooded area of Greenwich on Tuesday, Feb. 5 by Greenwich public works employees.
A 2012 graduate of New Rochelle High School, Reyes worked at Barnes & Noble in Eastchester. She was last heard from on Monday, Jan. 28, and had not been seen since Tuesday, Jan. 29. Her family filed a missing person report with the New Rochelle Police on Wednesday, Jan. 30.
Her body was discovered around 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 5 by the highway crew in a wooded area.
A former boyfriend, Javier Da Silva, of Queens, admitted during an interview with an FBI agent that he did bound and put Reyes, in a suitcase and leave it in a wooded area after she fell and hit her head, said a criminal complaint filed in White Plains Superior Court on Tuesday, Feb. 12.
In the arrest complaint, Da Silva also told police that he placed packing tape over her mouth, bound her hands and legs, and stuffed Reyes into the red suitcase then drove around before dumping the suitcase in Greenwich.
When found, her body had head trauma and bruising on her face, as well as a and a large hematoma on her forehead, according to the complaint.
The road that led detectives to Da Silva began when they reviewed Reyes' bank records that showed $1,000 had been withdrawn by someone using her debit card at around 5 a.m. on Jan. 29. A review of footage from a City of New Rochelle pole camera located in the area of the bank showed a black Honda CR-V pulled up toward the bank, parked across the street and a male exited the vehicle wearing a black hooded sweatshirt over his head, dark pants and black sneakers with white soles.
After making the transaction at the bank, the man got back into the vehicle and drove westbound where a license plate reader was able to pick up the vehicle's specific license plate number at the corner of North Avenue at Lincoln Avenue in New Rochelle.
From there, investigators were able to trace the vehicle to a car rental and car sharing company in Flushing. The person who had rented the vehicle on that same date was Da Silva, the complaint said.
Da Silva entered the U.S. on May 8, 2017, through the Visa Waiver Program; however, he failed to leave within the required timeframe, said Rachael Yong Yow, an ICE public affairs officer.
He is currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending criminal proceedings.
Once DaSilva has been through the court system and serves any potential sentence, Yong Yow said ICE will seek to take custody.
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