How Did Natalia Villalba Die? Influencer Found Dead, Shoved Inside Suitcase in Opulent Bogota Airbnb

A Colombian content creator and model, 36-year-old Natalia Villalba, was found dead on 21 June 2026 in a rented Airbnb flat in the upscale Chicó Norte area of Bogotá, her body shoved into a suitcase and left under a running shower, according to Colombian authorities.

The case has rapidly grown into a high-profile international investigation, not only because of the brutal way Villalba died, but also because the main suspect is a British man with a criminal record who allegedly fled the country before her body was discovered. Her death has been treated by Colombian prosecutors as a suspected femicide and has triggered a cross-border manhunt that ended, at least for now, in neighbouring Ecuador.

Villalba, whose full name was given as Natalia Villalba Angarita, was originally from Cúcuta, the Colombian city close to the Venezuelan border. She straddled several careers, working as a professional model, graphic designer and independent entrepreneur in Colombia's fashion and digital media sectors. Friends and relatives have described her to local media as a devoted daughter and sister, though they have largely kept her private life out of the spotlight as the investigation unfolds.

Inside The Bogota Airbnb Where Influencer Natalia Villalba Was Found

The news came after cleaning staff entered apartment 702 on the seventh floor of the Morph Chicó building on Calle 95, a modern, short-stay block popular with tourists and business travellers in northern Bogotá. According to officials, staff had gone in on 21 June to service the property, which Villalba had been renting since 3 June, when they found a suitcase placed in the shower with water still running over it.

Investigators from the Colombian Attorney General's Office later said the crime scene initially appeared designed to delay discovery and compromise evidence. The shower, left on for an extended period, had soaked the suitcase and the surrounding bathroom, something prosecutors believe was a calculated attempt to wash away traces and distort forensic findings.

Preliminary forensic notes cited by Colombian authorities indicated that Villalba had suffered severe physical violence and that there was significant pressure applied to her airways, pointing to asphyxiation as the likely cause of death. Final autopsy findings have not yet been made public, but investigators have treated the case from the outset as an aggravated killing of a woman, a category that in Colombia is often pursued as femicide.

Oddly, for such a meticulously staged scene, the person responsible also made what investigators consider glaring mistakes. Officials said two foreign passports and key documents were left behind in the flat, giving them a very clear starting point.

British Suspect, CCTV Trail And Interpol Hunt For Natalia Villalba Case

In case you missed it, building CCTV and access logs quickly focused attention on a British citizen named by Colombian authorities as 46‑year‑old Matthew Ashley Foster‑Smith, from Bournemouth. Footage reportedly showed him entering the apartment on 17 June and leaving the following day.

Prosecutors say the recordings also captured Foster‑Smith moving items within the building and transporting bed sheets to a laundry facility before disappearing from view. Investigators have interpreted those actions as an effort to scrub the scene of physical evidence, even as he left his own documentation behind, which is one of those details that will probably puzzle detectives for a long time.

Court and police records cited by Colombian officials show that Foster‑Smith had a prior criminal history in the UK. In 2023, he was convicted and handed a two‑year sentence for stalking and harassment. The exact nature of his connection to Villalba has not yet been fully laid out by authorities, and there is so far no public indication that the pair were in a long‑term relationship. IBTimes UK cannot independently verify whether they had met before this trip or how they first came into contact, so that part of the story remains murky.

Once Colombian authorities pieced together the CCTV timeline and passport information, the Attorney General's Office coordinated with Interpol and British police and issued a Red Notice, effectively asking police forces worldwide to locate and detain Foster‑Smith.

On 28 June 2026, just a week after Villalba's body was discovered, Ecuadorian officials arrested Foster‑Smith at Quito International Airport in an operation involving Interpol, Colombian prosecutors and Dorset Police in the UK. Colombian authorities have framed the arrest as a crucial step in securing justice, though formal extradition and the legal process that follows are likely to be far from straightforward.

Who Was Influencer And Model Natalia Villalba?

To recall, behind the grim headlines, Villalba had spent years building up a flexible, multi‑hyphenated career typical of many modern influencers, but with a strong offline backbone in design and fashion. She worked across three main roles, described by those who knew her as a professional model, a trained graphic designer and an entrepreneur who could operate independently across Colombia's fashion, digital media and design scenes.

There is no official or publicly available information on her net worth, and no verified Instagram handle has been confirmed in current reports, despite inevitable social media speculation. That has not stopped people online from trading unverified screenshots and claiming to have followed her for years. IBTimes UK cannot independently verify those posts, so take everything lightly.

Her family, who still live primarily in Cúcuta, have been closely involved in dealing with investigators and the press, trying to balance the need for information with a basic wish for privacy. Officials have said that Villalba was not married and there is no record of a husband or long‑term partner, which has only added to the questions around why she was with a 46‑year‑old British man in a Bogotá Airbnb in the first place.

Colombian investigators, working in tandem with international agencies, are now trying to knit together Villalba's final days in the capital, from her arrival at the Morph Chicó building on 3 June through to the CCTV images on 17 and 18 June. Somewhere in that two‑week stretch lies the path from a Cúcuta designer and model pushing her career forward to a woman whose body ended up hidden in a suitcase in an expensive flat, the shower left running as if that would somehow erase what happened there.

Authorities have promised further details once formal charges are filed against Foster‑Smith and court proceedings begin. Until then, much of the narrative remains unfinished, sitting in that uneasy space between fact, allegation and what people fear might be yet another example of violence against women that could have been stopped earlier, had someone joined the dots on a man's past behaviour.