A 19-year-old restaurant worker has been arrested and has confessed to fatally stabbing a colleague in Northern Virginia and then attempting to set her body on fire, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said Wednesday.
Alexis Antonio Cedillos-Campos is accused of killing Carmen Lizet Puch, 42, whom Davis described as a “loving mother of a 3-year-old girl.” Puch was found early Monday in a small gravel parking lot at Difficult Run Park in Great Falls, about 15 miles from Washington, after a jogger called 911 at around 6:45 a.m. and found her lying beside her 2011 Honda Civic.
Investigators say the two worked together at Bitez, a halal restaurant in Herndon, and had been in what Davis called an “intimate relationship” before the killing. Detectives are still examining whether other relationships bore on the motive.
“All very premeditated”
Davis said surveillance video from the restaurant captured the sequence that preceded the attack. “We have video footage of our suspect at the restaurant where he worked with our victim, arming himself with a fixed blade knife, taking a pair of black latex gloves, taking a water bottle, and then off he goes with the intent to do harm and kill the victim,” the chief said. “All very premeditated.”
After stabbing Puch repeatedly, Davis said, the suspect siphoned fuel from a motorcycle into the water bottle and tried without success to burn her body. “The way that she was treated by this killer was reprehensible,” he said.
Cedillos-Campos was arrested in Maryland on Wednesday morning and is awaiting extradition to Virginia. Davis said he has confessed and is cooperating with investigators.
Immigration status becomes a flashpoint
The Department of Homeland Security said Cedillos-Campos, a Salvadoran national, was apprehended by Border Patrol agents near El Paso, Texas, in April 2024 after crossing illegally, was taken into Customs and Border Protection custody, and was later released. A DHS spokesperson used the case to attack the previous administration, saying it “recklessly unleashed millions of unvetted illegal aliens into American communities.”
Davis kept his distance from that argument, saying his detectives are focused on interviewing witnesses, friends, family and coworkers, and that a suspect’s “immigration status plays no role in how they conduct their investigations.”
At the restaurant where Puch worked, owner Abdul Anwari told NBC Washington that staff were struggling to absorb the news. “I don’t know if you can process something like this,” he said. “We’re still taking it minute at a time.” Puch’s daughter is being cared for by family, and a fundraiser has been set up to cover funeral costs and provide for the child.
The investigation is continuing.
Reporting in this story is based on the Fairfax County police press conference, statements from the Department of Homeland Security, reporting by NBC Washington and coverage by the New York Post. The photograph is a stock file image, not a photograph of the events described.
