Verdejo, age 27, is in the custody of authorities after presenting himself to police after the lifeless body of Keishla got fished out of a lagoon in San Juan on Friday, April 30th. She had been declared missing the day before, and her mother went on record stating that she’d been planning to meet with Verdejo, to discuss the fact that she was pregnant.
Verdejo is married to Eliz Marie Santiago Sierra; the rumor mill started churning out theories about what happened to Keishla, but this doesn’t seem to be a case that will languish in a state of uncertainty, while engines of theorizing hum.
On Thursday afternoon, word dropped that an autopsy on Keishla showed her to be one month pregnant, and that she died by drowning. Asphyxia, forced by immersion into a body of water, caused her demise.
And the details flowing out paint a beyond-disturbing picture, according to a story in Primera Hora, by Maribel Hernandez Perez. Her sources allege that Keishla got into a vehicle with Verdejo, and the boxer then punched her in the face and injected sedatives, it looks like fentanyl and heroin, into her body.
An accomplice helped Verdejo tie Keishla’s hands and feet, weighed her down with a block, and then threw her in the San Jose lagoon. Verdejo, the Primera Hora story states, shot at Keishla, too, but she lived. Her oxygen gave out, though, and she drowned in the lagoon. A grand jury on Thursday made official the indictment of the fighter, who didn’t match the promise he showed as a 2012 Olympian, but still hoped to restore lost luster, and fight on the title shot status.
One could surmise “the accomplice” is one Luis Antonio Cadiz-Martinez, who, according to CBS reporter David Begnaud, has been indicted, by the US Attorneys office.
Verdejo is facing as of federal charges for kidnapping resulting in death, and also the death of an unborn fetus. The paperwork filed to the court of jurisdiction indicates that the death penalty could be considered for Verdejo, whose boxing career looks to be definitively over. Puerto Rico last executed someone for a crime in 1927, and in 1929, the death penalty was abolished there. The charges Verdejo faces allow for life imprisonment, and there are pro death penalty proponents who feel this case would fitting to bring back capital punishment.
