Sarah Boone claimed that Jorge Torres Jr. voluntarily climbed into a suitcase during a game of hide and seek, but videos from her phone showed her taunting her boyfriend as he told her that he couldn't breathe.
Good Life Funeral HomeJorge Torres Jr., 42, died in February 2020 after suffocating inside a suitcase.
In February 2020, an apartment complex in Winter Park, Florida, became the scene of a bizarre death investigation. The police were called to the home of Jorge Torres Jr. and his girlfriend, Sarah Boone, on Feb. 24, after Boone found Torres dead inside a suitcase in their living room.
Boone told detectives that she and Torres had been drinking wine and playing hide and seek the previous night when Torres voluntarily climbed inside the suitcase and asked Boone to zip it up because it would be “funny.” Boone then claimed that she forgot about Torres, fell asleep, and woke up the next day to find that he was unresponsive inside the luggage.
Videos from Boone’s phone told a different story, though. She had filmed herself taunting Torres as he told her that he couldn’t breathe. A medical examiner also found additional injuries on his body that suggested something much more sinister had occurred.
Despite her pleas that she hadn’t intentionally killed her boyfriend, Sarah Boone was convicted of the second-degree murder of Jorge Torres Jr. and sentenced to life in prison.
Jorge Torres Jr. And Sarah Boone’s Tumultuous Relationship
Jorge Torres Jr. and Sarah Boone began dating in 2016, and their relationship was volatile from the start.
In less than four years, Torres was arrested for domestic violence on four separate occasions. Boone bailed him out each time.
In July 2018, both Boone and Torres were charged with battery against each other. They were out at a bar together when Boone asked a man for a cigarette, which made Torres angry. The two started arguing, and the fight escalated when they got home.
Orange County Sheriff’s OfficeSarah Boone claimed that Jorge Torres Jr. viciously abused her for years, but his family says he was the real victim.
Boone told the police that Torres had dragged her up the stairs and kicked her in the eye. Torres had a different story. According to the arrest affidavit, “[W]hile Jorge was walking upstairs Sarah reached toward Jorge’s throat using both of her hands. Sarah placed both of her hands around Jorge’s throat and applied pressure to the extent that Jorge was having [a] difficult time breathing.” Torres then kicked Boone to get her off of him.
Boone was charged with battery by strangulation, but the case was ultimately dropped.
Despite this ongoing violence, Jorge Torres Jr. and Sarah Boone remained together for nearly four years. Then, in early 2020, things escalated further.
The Disturbing Death Of Jorge Torres Jr. While Trapped In A Suitcase
On the night of Feb. 23, 2020, Torres and Boone were reportedly sharing a bottle of wine and playing hide and seek in their Florida apartment. As Boone told the police two days later, they “both thought it would be funny if she zipped Jorge in the blue suitcase… Jorge willingly got into the suitcase and Sarah zipped the suitcase up, but two of Jorge’s fingers were able to stick out of the suitcase.”
Boone claimed that she then went upstairs, leaving 42-year-old Torres in the luggage because she thought he could get himself out, and accidentally fell asleep. She woke up the next morning to her phone ringing and realized that Torres wasn’t in bed. She raced downstairs, unzipped the suitcase, and found him unresponsive inside.
Jorge Torres Jr. was declared dead shortly after emergency services arrived.
That wasn’t the whole story, though. Videos on Boone’s phone from the night of Feb. 23 showed Torres trapped in the suitcase and shouting Boone’s name. She yelled back, “For everything you’ve done to me. F—k you. Stupid.”
Orange County Sheriff’s OfficeSarah Boone was arrested for her boyfriend’s murder after investigators saw the videos of her taunting Torres as he was trapped in the suitcase.
Torres then told Boone that he couldn’t breathe. She replied, “Yeah, that’s what you do when you choke me.” When Torres repeated that he wasn’t able to breathe, Boone said, “That’s on you. Oh, that’s what I feel like when you cheat on me.” A second video, taken 11 minutes later, showed the suitcase flipped over and moved to the other side of the room.
An autopsy revealed that Torres had “long nail scratches to his mid-upper back, a large nail scratch to the back of his neck, contusions to his left shoulder, left skull and forehead contusions considered blunt force trauma, and a cut near his busted lip.”
With this evidence, Sarah Boone was arrested for the murder of Jorge Torres Jr.
Inside Sarah Boone’s Controversial Trial
In the years leading up to her trial, Boone went through eight attorneys. Finally, after creating a bizarre, hand-drawn advertisement, she landed on James Owens — but he had an uphill battle ahead of him, one that began when Boone rejected a plea deal for manslaughter that would leave her behind bars for 15 years.
When the case finally went to trial in 2024, prosecutors argued that Boone had purposely trapped Torres in the suitcase with the intent to harm him. Her initial defense had revolved around her claims that she hadn’t meant to zip the suitcase all the way and believed that Torres could get himself out, but when she took the stand, she instead testified that she’d acted in self-defense.
Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s OfficeThe suitcase where Jorge Torres Jr. died.
In a letter to the judge, she wrote that Torres “slapped me, kicked, punched, spit on, raped, stabbed, choked, laughed at, pushed, pulled, dragged, whipped, trip, stole from, lied, terrorized, threatened, humiliated, forced, degraded, made me cry.”
“I forgive myself for falling in love with a monster,” she continued. “And no matter how grotesque he may become, I still loved, hoped and forgave.”
Her attorney argued that she was suffering from battered woman syndrome, and her actions had been her response to years of vicious abuse. When asked why she hadn’t let Torres out of the suitcase when he said he couldn’t breathe, Boone testified, “I wanted him to try to understand how I felt so maybe he could progress and be a better person.”
However, in a 2024 interview with Court TV, Torres’ daughters said that Boone’s allegations against their father were completely unfounded.
“My dad was an amazing person,” said his daughter Destiny. “He was my best friend. Nobody’s perfect, but my dad was very loving. Everybody loved him back. He didn’t deserve what happened to him.”
Orange County Sheriff’s OfficeSarah Boone was sentenced to life in prison for Torres’ murder.
Meanwhile, her sister Ana Victoria described Boone as “very evil.” “She is very calculated, very devious, very conniving,” she said. “My father was sheltered and berated. He was kept from us. He was the real victim in this situation.”
In the end, the jury found Boone guilty of the second-degree murder of Jorge Torres Jr. She was sentenced to life in prison.
As reported by FOX 35 Orlando at the time, State Attorney Andrew Bain said in response to the trial, “This is a very horrific homicide. Nobody really should have to endure this type of struggle and fight for their lives and have to die alone, begging for their last breath inside a suitcase. Today, justice was served with the conviction of Sarah Boone.”
After learning about the disturbing murder of Jorge Torres Jr., read about the death of Hollywood actress Susan Cabot, who was killed by her own son. Then, go inside the story of Charlie Brandt, the man who murdered his mom as a teenager and then went on to kill his wife.
