Chilean Police Arrest Man In Connection To Murder Of Kentucky School Teacher

SANTIAGO, Chile – Chilean police have arrested a suspect in the killing of U.S. teacher Erica Faith Hagan in the South American country.

The body of the 22-year-old recent grad was found in the bathroom of her apartment in the southern city of Temuco on Sept. 6. She had been in Chile since July 28 working as a teaching assistant at a local Baptist school.

Chilean officials said a security guard at the school named Domingo Cofre was arrested Friday night.

Local prosecutor Cristian Paredes said a poker was used to strike Hagan, adding that a physical examination showed at least three lesions on her head.

He told the Chilean newspaper El Tiempo last week that the injuries had “slashing-crushing” elements. He said the apartment she was found it, which belongs to the school, also had traces of a fire – possibly to erase evidence.

Hagan, who graduated from Kentucky’s Georgetown College with a degree in psychology, grew up in Murray, in the western part of the state.

She minored in Spanish and had traveled to Chile once before as part of a teaching exchange program between Georgetown College and the Colegio Boutisto of Temuco, about 425 miles south of Santiago.

Hagan kept a blog “Donde en el Mundo?” (“Where in the World?”). The last post, added the day before her body was discovered, talked about culture shock, and listing a few things she found disconcerting, including residents’ breakfast habits and the way they point with their lips.

She was expected to return to the U.S. in December.

Based on reporting by the Associated Press.