Elaine Kaheya Castillo, 33, was found dead in her Lexington, Kentucky duplex on February 10, 2020. Her young son called police and led them to a back bedroom where officers discovered her body with major blunt force trauma to the skull and lacerations on her hands consistent with defensive wounds from a violent struggle.

The night before, family reported a heated argument between Elaine and her 25-year-old boyfriend, Kevin Velasco-Gomez, after she reportedly discovered he had been with another woman. Velasco-Gomez and Elaine’s green Ford Expedition were missing from the residence; he was arrested by state police in Franklin the next day. He told investigators, through an interpreter, that Elaine had pulled a knife on him, that he saw her covered in blood and believed she was dead, then packed his belongings, locked the bedroom door and fled. The murder weapon was later recovered under a dresser in the apartment.

Velasco-Gomez was initially charged with murder and later pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and evidence tampering. During sentencing hearings Elaine’s family addressed him; in March 2023 a judge sentenced him to 16 years in prison. Did anyone in the Lexington area have contact with Elaine in the days before February 10, 2020?