Suspect arrested in death of young teacher

Los Angeles County sheriff ’s deputies have arrested a 37-year-old man suspected of murder after a woman’s body was found last week stuffed inside the trunk of a car at his home and set on fire.

Veronica Aguilar, 27, had been living in a home owned by the suspect, Matthew Switalski, in the Quartz Hill neighborhood near Lancaster. The UCLA graduate taught at a nearby elementary school and was beloved by the families she worked with and her friends.

Aguilar’s body was found by Los Angeles County firefighters responding to a garage fire Wednesday.

“Her story is all over the news of her brutal death,” her brother Juan Aguilar wrote on a GoFundMe page meant to raise money for a funeral. “Things will never be the same ever again. We miss her so much. She had the best spirit she always had a smile. My family is heartbroken.”

“She was the sweetest teacher in the world,” one parent of a student wrote on the website. “We were blessed to have her in our lives. My daughter loved her so much.”

Switalski is a former Northrop Grumman employee, and KABC-TV reported that he worked at the defense company until May. He was, according to LinkedIn, a program, cost and schedule controller and had worked for the company since 2010.

In the spring, court records show, Switalski was arrested and charged with several counts of rape and sexual misconduct with a romantic partner. After being arraigned in June, he was released on $600,000 bail, according to court records.

After the fire was extinguished at the Quartz Hill home Wednesday morning, authorities quickly identified Switalski as a suspect. Crews had searched the garage and discovered the woman’s body inside the trunk of the car.

He was arrested Thursday in Kern County, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. He’s being held at the Lancaster sheriff’s station on a $10-million bond and has been charged with a felony, according to the department’s inmate locator.