Details released in case against ex-boyfriend held in death of N.Y. woman found in suitcase

NEW YORK (WPIX) -- A man arrested in the killing of Valerie Reyes told police he put her inside a suitcase after she fell to the floor and hit her head, court documents said.

The suspect, 24-year-old Javier Da Silva, was arrested Monday and is facing a kidnapping charge in connection with Reyes' death, the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York said.

Reyes, 24, had been missing for about a week when her body was found February 5 inside a suitcase in Greenwich, Connecticut. A group of highway workers who were on a routine sweep spotted the bag about 15 to 20 feet from a road.

The Connecticut chief medical examiner's office has not yet released the cause and manner of Reyes' death.

The suspect told investigators that he and Reyes were having sex at her New Rochelle, New York, apartment on January 29 when "at some point she fell to the floor and hit her head," prosecutors said in a federal complaint Tuesday.

Da Silva then said he put packing tape over Reyes' mouth, bound her legs and hands and put her in a suitcase that he later put in her car, the complaint said.

He drove away and drove for some time, the complaint said, until he left the suitcase in a forest.

Reyes was found barefoot, her shirt was unbuttoned and her hands were bound behind her back with a white string and packing tape, the complaint said.

Da Silva was arrested Monday night in Queens after he used an ATM card in New York that belonged to Reyes, said Capt. Robert Berry of the Greenwich Police Department. Prosecutors said Reyes' debit card was used on the same day she went missing to withdraw about $1,000 from a bank in New Rochelle.

Surveillance video showed a man wearing a black hooded sweatshirt over his head around the time of the withdrawal. The man arrived in a Honda vehicle and parked across the street from the bank before he walked into the bank, the complaint said.

Da Silva's arrest comes after detectives examined "multiple crime scenes," reviewed hundreds of hours of surveillance footage, interviewed numerous potential witnesses and analyzed social media footprints, Greenwich police said.