Caracas police have shared new details regarding the arrest of Erika María Herrera and her role in the femicide of her daughter-in-law, Carolina Flores—a crime that shook the affluent Polanco district. Douglas Rico, Director of the Scientific, Criminal, and Forensic Investigations Corps (CICPC) in Venezuela’s capital, announced this Wednesday that the victim’s mother-in-law—who had fled to that country and was subsequently arrested for the murder of the young former Miss California—has attempted to excuse Flores’s death by claiming it “was an accident,” according to a Facebook broadcast by the agency, which serves as the Venezuelan equivalent of Mexico’s Investigative Police.
Herrera, 63, was apprehended after nearly 15 days on the run. It was on April 15 that she allegedly shot and killed her daughter-in-law in the presence of her son, Alejandro N., and her grandson—that is, the victim’s husband and their eight-month-old son—inside the apartment where the family resided. Her arrest took place on April 29. The moment Flores was shot six times by her mother-in-law was captured on video by a motion-sensor camera installed to monitor the baby. Outrage and controversy surrounding the case intensified due to the fact that the model’s husband did not file a report with authorities until a full day after the crime had been committed.
Rico explained that, after tracing the route the accused took to reach Venezuela—which included a layover in Panama—it was determined that she entered the country on April 16. She managed to clear all immigration checkpoints because the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) was not issued until April 29—two weeks after the femicide occurred.
“During the brief conversations we had at the moment we located her in the apartment, she [Herrera] claimed that it had been an accident—that what happened there [in Polanco] was an accident involving a ‘little toy’ left to her by her late husband,” states Rico, referring to the murder weapon.
The head of the CICPC was surprised that Herrera attempted to downplay the events by referring to the murder pistol as a “little toy,” without directly acknowledging that it was a firearm. “When asked about the whereabouts of that firearm—since she was unable to travel with it—she claimed she couldn’t remember. The woman displayed a remarkably tough demeanor for her age—63—especially considering she knew she had committed such a heinous act,” he recounts.
Upon receiving the alert from Interpol, coordination efforts were initiated at Simón Bolívar International Airport (Maiquetía), the primary air terminal serving Caracas. Located in Maiquetía—a city near the capital—it serves as the country’s main international air entry and exit point. According to Rico, the accused stayed at the Hotel Eurobuilding—located near the airport—between April 16 and 18. Subsequently, she moved to Caracas and stayed at another accommodation in the La Candelaria district.
The former beauty queen’s mother-in-law moved once again, going into hiding in an apartment she rented through Airbnb in an upscale area of the Venezuelan capital known as the El Cigarral residential development, located in the municipality of El Hatillo.
Venezuela’s police director affirms that, with the support of Interpol and the Community of Police of the Americas—an international cooperation mechanism comprising police agencies from over 30 countries across the American continent dedicated to combating organized crime, drug trafficking, and transnational offenses—successful coordination was achieved to place the accused at the disposal of the authorities. She is to be brought before Venezuelan courts first, to undergo legal proceedings, and subsequently be deported “so that she may answer for the harm she has caused.”
