Felix Verdejo bound Keshla Rodriguez’s hands and feet and tied her to a cement block before the young woman fell, still alive, into the lake.

Felix Verdejo, a 30-year-old Olympic boxer from Puerto Rico, has been sentenced to “two life sentences” for the “horrific” kidnapping and murder of his girlfriend, who was four weeks pregnant. Keshla Rodriguez, 27, was drugged and thrown, still alive, into a lake in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in April 2021.

In court, prosecutors said the athlete – who represented the country at the 2012 Olympics in London – wanted Keshla to have an abortion. The woman’s mother said her daughter met Verdejo at home to tell him she was pregnant.

The athlete came accompanied by his friend Luis Antonio Cádiz. According to the prosecution, she got into Verdejo’s car and the boxer punched her in the face, then injected her with an unknown substance. An autopsy later revealed that Keshla had a tranquilizer drug used on horses and other animals in her system.

The men then used wire to bind her hands and feet, before pinning her to a cement block. She was then thrown from an overpass into the lake in broad daylight at around 8:30 am. The friend later called 911, anonymously, and told him the location of the body that was found on May 1, 2021, two days after it was dumped in the water by Verdejo.

The coroner told the court that Keshala was still alive when she was thrown into the lake. The friend, who cooperated with authorities and pleaded guilty in November last year, will serve a 30-year prison sentence.

The young woman’s mother, who was in court, did not hide her excitement. “Justice has been served for my daughter and my grandson. There were two lives. This was a horrific murder.”

In turn, Puerto Rico’s police commissioner warned that this ruling should serve as a lesson. “It doesn’t matter what fame, money, or power people think they have. Anyone who breaks the law has to take responsibility.”

Written by Isabelle Dantas