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Authorities say suspect in suitcase death is in US illegally

Suspect is a citizen of Portugal
Police say the body of a young woman was found bound inside a suitcase left alongside a road in the affluent Connecticut town of Greenwich on Feb. 5, 2019.
Posted at 2:48 PM, Feb 13, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-13 14:48:17-05

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal immigration authorities say a man accused of killing his ex-girlfriend and dumping her body in a suitcase in Connecticut is a citizen of Portugal and is in the U.S. illegally.

Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Wednesday that Javier Da Silva Rojas entered the United States in May 2017 through a visa waiver program and was supposed to leave the country later that year.

Da Silva is charged with kidnapping resulting in death in connection with the killing of 24-year-old Valerie Reyes. Her body was found in a suitcase in Greenwich on Feb. 5.

A lawyer for Da Silva declined to comment Wednesday.

A funeral for Reyes was held Wednesday in her hometown of New Rochelle, New York.