Man suspected of killing girlfriend and keeping her in plastic box ‘to remain close to her’

Teen mother is believed to have died 10 days before her body was recovered

Daniel Blas Torrealba, 21, and his brother Edwin Chavez-Blas, 19, have been arrested in the case (Screengrab/AZfamily)

A man in Arizona has told the police that he kept the body of his teenage girlfriend for days “because he wanted to remain close to her,” according to reports.

Daniel Blas Torrealba, 21, and his brother Edwin Humberto Chavez-Blas,19, were arrested after the decomposed body of Destiny Munoz, 17, was recovered from a plastic container in a vehicle parked at an empty house, the police said on Monday.

Police recovered the body, which had “a strong odor of decomposing matter” on 5 October from north Phoenix, where Mr Torrealba was living with his girlfriend and their 1-year-old child, according to court documents obtained by Phoenix news website azfamily.

Police believe that Munoz died on 26 September, 10 days before her body was recovered.

Both brothers have been charged with concealment of a body and evidence tampering. They had allegedly planned to dismember Munoz’s body with a chainsaw and bury it.

Police found a chainsaw, a 9mm handgun, gloves, duct tape and several other items which they believe could have been used to conceal the body, according to court documents.

The medical examiner concluded that Munoz died of a gunshot but Mr Torrealba and his brother gave different explanations. Mr Torrealba claimed that she shot herself in the face during an argument and added that she had threatened to take her own life several times in the past. But Mr Chavez-Blas claimed that Munoz either hit her head or was accidentally shot when she fell.

Mr Torrealba continued texting Munzo’s family from her phone after she died so that they “would not worry about her,” according to court documents. He claimed that he did not inform the police because he did not want to get in trouble for “illegally possessing a firearm”.

He added that he “kept [her] in [a] plastic container because he wanted to remain close to her”.

Mr Chavez-Blas allegedly helped to clean up the scene and was caught on surveillance footage buying the container, tape and the chainsaw from a store.