Man murders ex-girlfriend with machete, commits suicide two days later

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Forty-year-old Yuri Ernestina Zapata Pichardo became the victim of a brutal murder on May 30, 2026, in the Dominican resort town of Punta Cana. She went to visit a friend at her house in the Teta Quieta neighborhood of Verón, unaware that her former partner, Leandro Almonte Lantigua, nicknamed Amauri, had followed her there. According to investigators, the man attacked her inside the house with a machete and inflicted a fatal neck wound. Yuri had been divorced from or separated from the attacker for about seven months, but he had allegedly made repeated attempts to reconcile with her. She is survived by a son, who was not the suspect’s child.

After the attack, the suspect fled the scene, and police immediately launched a manhunt. Investigators obtained an arrest warrant and tracked his movements while the victim’s family and neighbors called for his swift capture. The search ended unexpectedly two days later, on June 1, 2026. Amauri was found dead in a hotel room in the El Gualete area of the municipality of Villa Isabela, Puerto Plata Province, where both he and Yuri were originally from. According to the preliminary investigation, he died by suicide after ingesting a toxic substance. Police concluded the case was a murder followed by suicide, with forensic examinations confirming the final cause of death.