Background: The crime scene in the parking lot of Difficult Run park in the 8800 block of Georgetown Pike in Great Falls, Va. (WTTG/YouTube). Inset left: Alexis Antonio Cedillos-Campos (Fairfax County Police Department). Inset right: Carmen Lizet Puch (GoFundMe).
A 19-year-old in Virginia is behind bars after fatally stabbing a co-worker with whom he was "intimate" before trying to set her body on fire, authorities say.
Alexis Antonio Cedillos-Campos has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of 42-year-old Carmen Lizet Puch, the Fairfax County Police Department announced on Wednesday. The defendant was detained in the Prince George County jail while awaiting extradition to Fairfax County.
On Sunday night, Cedillos-Campos was at Bitez restaurant in Herndon, Virginia, a town in Fairfax County about 20 miles west of Washington, D.C. He worked there with Puch, and the two had an "intimate relationship," Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said at a press conference.
Around midnight Monday, Cedillos-Campos left the restaurant, added Rachel Levy, Fairfax County assistant police chief of investigations. He was "armed with a fixed blade knife that he took from the restaurant," and also had "a pair of latex gloves" and a water bottle, which he dumped and filled with gasoline from his motorcycle.
It was "all very premeditated," Davis said.
Some time later, the suspect and victim were in the parking lot of Difficult Run park in the 8800 block of Georgetown Pike in Great Falls, Virginia, about 14 miles away from the restaurant. Police say Cedillos-Campos stabbed Puch "repeatedly" and "doused her in gasoline and tried to set her on fire."
He was apparently unsuccessful.
At about 6:45 a.m. on Monday, officers from the McLean District Station in Fairfax County responded to the park. A jogger had found her lying next to her car in the small gravel parking lot, regional NBC affiliate WRC reported.
Puch was dead. She had "multiple stab wounds and had been doused in gasoline."
Police investigated, searching through surveillance video and speaking with people at the restaurant where the suspect and victim worked. They identified Cedillos-Campos as the suspect and arrested him on Wednesday.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Cedillos-Campos is a citizen of El Salvador who entered the country illegally and was arrested in 2024 but then released. The agency asked that he be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Police did not indicate a motive for the "reprehensible" killing.
Puch was the mother of a 4-year-old daughter, according to a fundraiser set up for her family. Police said Cedillos-Campos is not the child's father.
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