Man strangled ex-girlfriend to death in fight over music

A 33-year-old man is headed to prison for decades for murdering his ex-girlfriend and throwing her body off a Maryland bridge before driving to Philadelphia to bring in the New Year and later reporting her missing.

Francisco Lara-Garcia was sentenced to life in prison with all but 40 years suspended for the death of 20-year-old Keylin Chavez Dominguez, the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office said. Lara-Garcia pleaded guilty in March to first-degree murder.

The pair started dating in early 2021 when they lived in Honduras and continued their relationship and stayed together at an apartment in Rockville, a Washington, D.C., suburb, according to a probable cause affidavit. Chavez Dominguez began dating another man in August 2022, which made Lara-Garcia jealous. However, the former couple still lived together.

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The victim was last heard from on Dec. 30, 2022, when she sent her new boyfriend a text message. They planned to hang out the next day and when Chavez Dominguez did not contact him, he became concerned and began searching for her. He called Lara-Garcia who claimed he did not know her whereabouts.

At the insistence of her family, Lara-Garcia reported her missing on Jan. 2, 2023. Lara-Garcia’s statements to cops “revealed inconsistencies and inaccuracies which indicated Lara-Garcia was not being truthful about the circumstances surrounding the victim’s disappearance,” cops wrote.

On Jan. 28, 2023, a man walking his dog under the eastbound Intercounty Connector between New Hampshire Avenue and Columbia Pike in Silver Spring discovered a woman’s body that was partially concealed by trash bags. It was Chavez Dominguez. An autopsy determined she had been strangled to death and beaten.

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Shortly thereafter, Lara-Garcia began to flee the area, making authorities believe he was trying to leave the country for Honduras. The U.S. Marshals Service arrested him in Missouri on Feb. 1, 2023.

In an interview he gave after receiving his Miranda rights, Lara-Garcia admitted to murdering the victim. He said on the evening of Dec. 30, 2022, the pair were listening to music in their apartment when he wanted to change up the playlist. She refused and he became angry. The defendant punched her in the face.

“He knocked her down to the ground and straddled her, continuing to punch her and hit her head on the floor,” cops wrote. “He then manually strangled her, and when he stopped, she was dead.”

Lara-Garcia stuffed the victim’s body in two trash bags and placed them in the back seat of his car. He drove around looking for a place to dispose of the body and eventually settled on the Intercounty Connector. He threw her body off the bridge and then went to Philadelphia to celebrate New Year’s Eve.

“We thank Montgomery County Police and the United States Marshals Service for their assistance in providing justice for the victim’s family. This defendant lied to police and Chavez Dominguez’s loved ones for nearly a month while they desperately kept hope alive that she may have been found unharmed,” State’s Attorney John McCarthy said in a statement.