David Varela, Navy reservist murders wife, Lina Guerra, stuffs her body in Norfolk, Virginia freezer before fleeing to Hong Kong where no U.S extradition exists to have wanted man returned to the U.S to face murder charges.
A Navy reservist has fled the U.S amid allegations he murdered his wife before stuffing her body in a freezer at their Virginia home.
Lina Guerra, 39, of Norfolk, Va., was reported missing at the beginning of February, only to be discovered by Norfolk police in the kitchen freezer, with the FBI now alleging that her husband, 38-year-old David Varela, murdered her, according to an affidavit.
Varela flew to Hong Kong on Feb. 5, the day after Guerra was reported missing, the Virginian Pilot reported citing police.
‘Jealous’ navy reservist husband concocts reason for wife’s disappearance
Norfolk Police are working with NCIS, Homeland Security and the FBI in the search for Varela, who is a reservist on active duty with the U.S. Navy. Authorities have not reached him since his departure.
While officials have yet to provide a motive for the slaying, family members told WTKR that Varela was a ‘jealous husband.’ The spouse is reported to have been married to the victim for 11 years.
Guerra’s family reported her missing after not hearing from her for two weeks. Varela told her family in Colombia, South America that Guerra was arrested and imprisoned on shoplifting charges.
They said he even sent him a picture of them together and said he was him visiting her in jail. In the picture sent to Guerra’s family by Varela, she appears to be wearing an orange jumpsuit.
Court records confirmed that Guerra was never charged with or convicted of this shoplifting crime.
The family says Varela was jealous, wouldn’t let her work, wouldn’t let her have friends, wouldn’t let her study and wouldn’t let her go out alone.
‘I want to emphasize that there had been violence before from David,’ a family member of the victim told WTKR. ‘He had hit her previously, but she didn’t tell us because she didn’t want to worry us. He appeared to be very religious, very calm, normal, that’s why this is so shocking; we never imagined he’d do something like this.’
Wanted navy reservist husband thought to have fled to Hong Kong taking advantage of no extradition policy
Varela has since been charged with first-degree murder and concealing a dead body.
Homeland Security Investigations found that Valera took flight to Hong Kong ‘on or about Feb. 5, 2026,’ although they said he ‘does not have any discernible ties to Hong Kong or China,’ WAVY reported.
Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi is seeking to extradite Varela back to the U.S. to face the charges.
According to the U.S. Navy, David Varela is an enlisted Navy reservist from Florida currently on active orders and working as an electrician.
He has more than a decade of military service, having enlisted in 2007 but taking a 5-year break between 2012 and 2017.
Varela served in at least six states after enlisting in the Navy in 2007, where he received multiple awards and decorations, 13 News Now reported.
There is growing concern that Varela fled to Hong Kong because the extradition treaty with the United States has been suspended since August 2020, Ed Booth, a Navy public affairs officer, told the station.
‘If you needed to buy yourself some time to where law enforcement was not going to be looking for you, this was a way to do it,’ Booth said.
‘You can’t murder people in Hong Kong, you can’t murder people in the United States, so you’ve got that, but you don’t have a treaty in place for mutual extradition from one country to the other.’
