Case against Navy man for wrapping wife in plastic wrap, stuffing her in freezer, certified by Va. judge

Nori Leybengrub, The Virginian-Pilot on Sep 2, 2026

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NORFOLK, Va. — A Norfolk judge certified the case against a Navy electrician, accused of beating his wife before wrapping her in plastic wrap, and storing her body in the freezer of their downtown Norfolk apartment.

At a probable cause hearing on Wednesday morning, David Varela appeared in a Norfolk Juvenile and Domestic Relations courtroom in a striped Norfolk City Jail jumpsuit with his beard and hair grown out and jelled back.

Norfolk police Detective James Natiello testified that on Feb. 2, the half-brother of Varela’s wife, Lina Maria Guerra Echavarria, filed a missing persons report on her behalf. The brother told Natiello that his frequent calls to her had gone unanswered for several weeks.

When the brother reached Varela, he told him his wife was in jail and seemed frustrated that police were contacted.

Natiello testified that he couldn’t find a trace of Guerra. He called her and her husband several times, but neither would answer.

The detective went to the couple’s apartment on the 19th floor of the ICON building and knocked on the door. He left his business card.

Natiello said he reviewed key card access data in the weeks since Guerra disappeared – each time her card was activated her husband could be seen on surveillance footage swiping it.

Natiello returned the next day to find his business card missing from the couple’s apartment door. Varela’s supervisor told him he had not been coming to work because of an injury. From the hallway outside the couple’s door, the Navy Chief and Natiello called Guerra’s cell phone and heard it ring inside the apartment.

A security guard helped them enter to check if she was in danger, and they found her phone on a bed. After getting a search warrant, Natiello found Guerra.

Her body was wrapped in layers of green plastic wrap and frozen solid inside the freezer.

Norfolk homicide Detective John W. Murphy III testified that detectives didn’t find any blood or evidence of a struggle. Neighbors told him they didn’t recall hearing anything from next door, but they hadn’t seen Guerra for some time.

The medical examiner, Murphy said, had to wait for Guerra’s body to defrost before completing the autopsy. Murphy said she found bruises all over Guerra’s body, including her face and the top of her head.

The autopsy concluded that Guerra’s death was caused by a combination of blunt force trauma and asphyxiation. She was likely alive, but unconscious, when she was wrapped in the plastic and died slowly, prosecutors said at Wednesday’s hearing.

Murphy said he learned Varela had traveled to Hong Kong after the search. Varela was charged with first degree murder and concealment of a dead body for his wife’s murder, prompting a months-long federal manhunt to return him to the United States.

Norfolk police, Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Naval Criminal Investigative Service helped find Varela and return him on April 15 – when Murphy said he met Varela as U.S. Marshals pushed him, handcuffed, in a rolling chair off a plane in San Francisco.

Varela was interviewed in a room at the San Francisco police department headquarters. Murphy said Varela declined to answer questions without speaking to a lawyer.

Varela’s attorney, public defender Carter Kovalcheck, argued that prosecutors did not present evidence that his client had planned to kill his wife.

In early January, Guerra was packing in preparation for a move to Florida, where Varela planned to follow after finishing his Navy service, Kovalcheck said. At about the same time, the couple had purchased the plastic wrap from Home Depot.

Kovalcheck also argued there is no evidence suggesting that his client knew Guerra was alive when she was wrapped and placed in the freezer.

But given the multiple layers of plastic wrap that covered Guerra’s body and the extensive bruising on her face, neck and scalp, prosecutors argued it was likely that what happened to her intended to cause her death.

Juvenile and Domestic Relations court Judge Robert Smith III certified the case to a grand jury, which is expected to make their decision in early October. Smith also ordered Varela’s continued custody without a bond.

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