Married boxing champion Félix Verdejo Sánchez is being charged with kidnapping and carjacking and intentionally killing after he turned himself in, accused of after ‘killing his pregnant lover’, 27, who was found dead in a lagoon

The Puerto Rican boxer turned himself in to federal agents on Sunday after police identified the body of a dead woman fished out of water as his missing pregnant lover, Keishla Rodríguez Ortiz

Rodríguez Ortiz was reported missing Thursday, her body was found in a lagoon near San Juan Saturday, and she was identified on Sunday from dental records

The 27-year-old pro athlete who is married with a two-year-old daughter had known the victim since middle school and kept up with her since

She was pregnant with his child, and her family claim the boxer had threatened her, demanding she abort the baby

He is charged with kidnapping resulting in death, carjacking resulting in death and killing of an unborn child

Feds say he lured Keishla Rodriguez Ortiz to a meeting on Thursday

As the pair sat in his SUV he allegedly, punched her in the face, injected her with a syringe, bound her arms and feet with wire and tied a heavy block to her before throwing her off a bridge near San Juan

He then shot the pregnant woman in the water, from his position on the bridge

The feds investigation was aided by information supplied by a ‘cooperating witness,’ who helped the suspect in commiting the murder, as well as, cell phone data and surveillance camera footage from the crime scene

Charges carry a maximum penalty of death, feds will decide if capital punisment is on the table  

Puerto Rican boxer Félix Verdejo Sánchez faces the possibility of a death sentence after been charged with the murder of his pregnant mistress after she was found dead in a lagoon.  Verdejo Sánchez was arrested on kidnap and intentional killing charges on Sunday in Puerto Rico.
The former boxing champion turned himself in to police, hours after the dead body Keishla Rodríguez Ortiz was discovered near the island’s capital San Juan, and formally identified. 
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said late on Sunday that Verdejo was being held without bond.
The 27-year-old pro athlete, who represented Puerto Rico at the Olympics in 2012, is married with a two-year-old daughter.

According to the New York Times, the charges carry a maximum penalty of death, but federal prosecutors have yet to decide whether to pursue execution. 
A criminal complaint filed by the FBI accuses Verdejo of punching 27-year-old Rodríguez in the face and injecting her with a syringe filled with an unidentified substance bought at a public housing complex.  
It alleges he then bound her arms and feet with wire and tied a heavy block to her before throwing her off a bridge at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday.
The complaint states that Verdejo Sánchez then shot at Rodríguez’s body as he stood on the bridge.
The complaint says a witness it did not identify helped Verdejo kidnap and kill Rodríguez.

Rodríguez Ortiz was found in a lagoon near the U.S. territory’s capital Saturday, a couple of days after she was reported missing. She was identified on Sunday from dental records, Puerto Rico´s Institute of Forensic Science said in a statement.
In previous interviews Verdejo and his attorneys had declined comment. The boxer did not originally cooperate and refused to answer questions, police said.
The victim’s family said she was pregnant with Verdejo’s child. Keila Ortiz, the victim’s mother, told reporters that her daughter had called her before she vanished on Thursday and told her that Verdejo Sánchez was going to her house to see the results of a pregnancy test.
‘I told her, “Be careful,” because he had already threatened her,” Keila Ortiz said. Verdejo had warned her daughter not to have the baby, mentioning his career and family, she said.

A criminal complaint filed by the FBI accuses Verdejo Sánchez of punching Keishla Rodríguez in the face and injecting her with a syringe filled with an unidentified substance bought at a public housing complex. Félix Verdejo Sánchez voluntarily presented himself for interview at the police headquarters in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with investigators from the Criminal Investigation Corps, but he refused to answer questions about his lover’s disappearance in an interview with police. He was not considered a suspect at the time at the time,.
He was later arrested and charged when he turned himself into police after Rodríguez’s body was formally identified.

Félix Verdejo Sánchez had refused to answer questions about his lover’s disappearance in an interview with police, but was not considered a suspect at the time.
He was later arrested and charged when he turned himself into police after Rodríguez’s body was formally identified.
Verdejo Sánchez had known Rodríguez since middle school and kept in touch with her, her parents said.
They reported her missing after she didn’t show up for her job at an animal grooming business.

Verdejo was previously questioned by police, but had refused to answer questions about his lover’s disappearance.
At the time, police captain Luis Díaz said Verdejo was not considered a suspect in Rodríguez’s disappearance. 
Police were investigating several anonymous calls received by Rodríguez’s parents in which a female could be heard sobbing in the background.
Officers had found a four-door gray Kia Forte was found abandoned at a lot next to a home in the municipality of Canóvanas. It was later identified as Rodríguez’s car.
Félix Verdejo Sánchez is married to influencer Eliz Marie Santiago with who he shares a two-year-old daughter. Santiago, also met with the police for questioning on Friday night. 

Verdejo was previously questioned by police, but had refused to answer questions about his lover’s whereabouts.
At the time, police captain Luis Díaz said Verdejo was not considered a suspect in Rodríguez’s disappearance. 
Police were investigating several anonymous calls received by Rodríguez’s parents in which a female could be heard sobbing in the background.
Officers had found a four-door gray Kia Forte was found abandoned at a lot next to a home in the municipality of Canóvanas. It was later identified as Rodríguez’s car.
Félix Verdejo Sánchez is married to influencer Eliz Marie Santiago and has a two-year-old daughter with her
His wife, Eliz Marie Santiago, also met with the police for questioning on Friday night. However, he had  known Keishla Rodríguez Ortiz since middle school and kept in touch with her, her parents said. 

The victim’s mother, Keila Ortiz Rivera, told El Nuevo Día that when she last spoke with her daughter on Thursday morning, and she was told that Verdejo was on his way to meet her to look at the results of a pregnancy test she had taken.
“Be careful’ because he had threatened her not to have the baby, that he had his family, that he is a boxer, that he is a public figure,” Ortiz Rivera says she told her daughter. Around 9:30 a.m. she received a call from her other daughter, who said sister’s boss had called to say she had not shown up for work.
“For me, that was super strange because she is very responsible about her job,” Ortiz Rivera said. However, when she called her daughter’s boyfriend to ask about her daughter, he claimed he did not know where she was.“You’re lying to me — that’s the first lie,” Ortiz Rivera recalled telling him.
“She talked to me a little while ago, and told me that you were going to her house when you were done working out.”.

One time WBO Latino lightweight champion Verdejo Sánchez represented Puerto Rico at the Olympics in 2012, the same year he became a professional boxer competing in the lightweight division. 
The boxing record for Verdejo Sánchez stands at 27-2, with 17 knockouts, according to Top Rank, a boxing promotion company in Las Vegas. Although Top Rank lists Verdejo Sánchez as one of its fighters, the page containing his data is no longer available on the company’s website.
He has not fought since December 12, 2020 when he was knocked out in a 9th round loss to Masayoshi Nakatani in Las Vegas. 
Verdejo Sánchez won his first 23 fights before suffering a TKO loss to Antonio Lozada Torres on March 18, 2018, at Madison Square Garden in New York. The former champion rebounded by winning his next four bouts and then suffered the setback loss to Nakatani.

In the criminal complaint, the FBI allegedly, relied on information from a witness whom the agency describes as a person “with firsthand, personal knowledge” of what took place.
Verdejo Sánchez, according to this account, contacted the witness “and requested his help to terminate the pregnancy,” the complaint said. The witness cooperated.
The witness revealed that Verdejo Sánchez and Keishla Rodríguez Ortiz met on Thursday evening in Verdejo Sánchez’s black Durango S.U.V.
At one point while inside the vehicle, the suspect punched Rodríguez Ortiz in the face “and she was injected with a syringe filled with substances,” which were not specified in the complaint.
Then, Verdejo Sánchez and the witness tied her hands and feet with wire. They also tied a block to her, according to the complaint, and loaded her body into the grey Kia sedan she had driven to the meeting with the suspect.
The two conspirators drove both vehicles onto the Teodoro Moscoso Bridge, which spans the San Jose Lagoon, near San Juan. The men tossed preganant woman into the water, then her boyfriend shot at her with a pistol from the bridge, according to the complaint.
After the killing, the pair abandoned Rodríguez Ortiz’s vehicle, which was found a day later.
Using cellphone data, investigators had pieced together where Ortiz had traveled and with whom she had spoken before she disappeared, that led to the suspect and the bridge, the complaint said.
Surveillance video from the bridge shows a dark vehicle similar to Verdejo Sánchez’s SUV parking on the emergency lane of the bridge, with “visible movement of at least one individual on the side of the vehicle.”

As of Sunday evening Verdejo Sánchez was in custody, expected to make his initial court appearance on Monday.
The case has outraged many in Puerto Rico, where another woman was recently found burned to death after she filed a domestic violence complaint that a judge dismissed. 
A Superior Court judge has announced an investigation into that decision.
Hundreds of people gathered Sunday at a bridge that crosses the lagoon where Rodríguez’s body was found to demand justice for her and other women killed, with some throwing flowers into the water below.