A man identifying himself as the boyfriend of Valerie Reyes, the young woman who was found murdered in Greenwich, Connecticut, last week, has shared more about his relationship with Reyes and the mysterious circumstances surrounding the tragedy.
CrimeOnline spoke with a man who had posted alerts on Twitter about his missing girlfriend Valerie Reyes beginning in late January, before Reyes was found dead on February 5. As CrimeOnline previously reported, town workers cleaning trash along Glenville Road in Greenwich discovered a suitcase that had a woman’s body inside it on Tuesday morning at about 8:30 a.m.. Within two days, authorities identified the murder victim as Reyes, who was reported missing on January 30 after she did not show up for her job at a bookstore in Eastchester on January 29.
My girlfriend Valerie is now officially reported as a missing person nationwide by the authorities. Please contact me if there is ANY kind of information. #FindValerieReyes#Repost#Missing pic.twitter.com/TOWXKuIxGj
— Ju$ (@Jus_esq) January 31, 2019
CrimeOnline reached out to the man claiming to be Reyes’ boyfriend via Twitter on Saturday, and communicated with him through Twitter direct message. New Rochelle police have not yet responded to our requests to confirm the details of our conversation with investigators.
At the time of the interview, multiple news outlets had been reporting, based on an interview with Reyes’ mother Norma Sanchez, that Reyes had broken up with a boyfriend on January 24, the week before she went missing. But the person we spoke to said that he and Reyes were only taking a break, and said reports of neighbors overhearing the couple fighting were not representative of their relationship.
“The stories regarding her neighbors seeing us argue are not true,” the boyfriend wrote. “Valerie and I had a misunderstanding, which is true, but we would never EVER yell at one another and fight frequently.”
He said that he and Valerie “decided to just have some space between us to just let everything settle,” and that neither one of them had decided the relationship was over for good.
Reyes’ mother told LoHud.com and the New York Times that her daughter had been anxious and fearful that someone would murder her the night before she disappeared, but noted to LodHud.com that Reyes’ ex-boyfriend did not appear to be the source of the threat. Both the mother and the person who spoke to CrimeOnline said that they were not aware of any specific person or circumstance that may have made Reyes fearful.
In response to a question about reports that Reyes had been in Manhattan between the time she disappeared and was found dead, the boyfriend said that “Valerie never went to Manhattan” and that the two of them had never been there together. Sanchez told LoHud.com that the family had hired a private investigator just after Reyes went missing, and that the investigator found evidence that Reyes had been in Manhattan on January 31. Sanchez told the news outlet that Reyes appeared on surveillance camera footage at an ATM early that morning, and that her bank card was used at another ATM location in Manhattan that same morning.
“The stories regarding her being in Manhattan aren’t so certain because it was only her debit card that was tracked there,” the man we spoke to wrote in a message exchange, indicating that he was not confident about the reported photographic evidence that Reyes had been in Manhattan.
He also indicated that he has been in close contact with Reyes’ family since she disappeared, and said that he went to her apartment on January 30 with Reyes’ father, two of her siblings, and Reyes best friend. He said that Reyes’ father had keys to the apartment. He also said that he “went to check on Val to work things out on Tuesday,” January 29, but did not say whether he had gone to her apartment. He said that on that day he had spoken to Reyes’ father and brother.
“[T]he situation was very bizarre,” he said. “It was so unlike her to just not talk to her mother and have her phone off. They had such a strong relationship.”
The boyfriend said he was upset by the media attention that cast suspicion on him “because I just want to be able to mourn and grieve the loss of Valerie with her family and friends.” He added that he had been in regular communication with the New Rochelle Police Department and was fully cooperating with the investigation.
“My prayers go out to her and her family constantly,” he said.
