Two men have been arrested in connection with the death of an American Airlines flight attendant from the Dallas-Fort Worth area who was killed during a crew layover in Colombia earlier this year.
The U.S. Embassy in Bogotá announced over the weekend that both suspects were apprehended in Peru. One has already been transferred to Colombia to face charges while the other remains in Peru pending extradition proceedings.
Eric Fernando Gutierrez Molina was a 32-year-old U.S. citizen based at DFW who disappeared on March 22 in Medellín. He had arrived the day before on a flight from Miami and was due to return to the United States the following morning.
Gutierrez and a fellow crew member left their hotel that Saturday night to go out in the city. According to a close friend of the flight attendant the two colleagues met a pair of men at a nightclub and later agreed to continue the night at another location when the club closed.
The female colleague returned to the hotel alone in the early morning hours but was found in a severely disoriented state. Gutierrez never returned.
His body was discovered days later in a rural area located between the municipalities of Jericó and Puente Iglesias in northeastern Colombia. Medellín Security Secretary Manuel Villa Mejía confirmed that investigators had identified the individuals last seen with Gutierrez and that those suspects had a documented history of using scopolamine to commit robberies.
Scopolamine is a powerful sedative sometimes called “devil’s breath” that has been widely used in violent crimes across Colombian cities including Medellín Cartagena and Bogotá. The U.S. Embassy has warned travelers that the drug is often administered to victims at bars and nightclubs leaving them unconscious disoriented and with no memory of events. In severe cases or when given in large doses the drug can cause respiratory failure and death.
Villa vowed at a press conference following the discovery of Gutierrez’s body that those responsible would be brought to justice.
Gutierrez was originally from El Salvador and had become a naturalized U.S. citizen. His family described him on a fundraising page as a warm and beloved person whose spirit touched everyone around him. His longtime partner was described as devastated by the loss.
The arrests mark a significant development in a case that drew widespread attention across North Texas and the broader aviation community. Specific charges against the two suspects have not yet been publicly disclosed by Colombian or Peruvian authorities.
