Firefighters in Quartz Hill near Lancaster, California, responded to a house fire on December 20, 2023. In the midst of battling the blaze, they uncovered a grim scene: the body of 27-year-old Veronica Aguilar, an elementary school teacher from Palmdale, California, was found in the trunk of a charred car. The car was located in a garage on 38th Street West in a Los Angeles suburb.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, suspecting arson and homicide, apprehended 37-year-old Matthew Switalski. Following the discovery of Aguilar’s body, Switalski was arrested and is currently facing murder charges.
Investigations revealed that the property where the car was found belongs to Switalski, a former Northrop Grumman employee. At the time of the incident, he was not at the residence, where he had rented out several rooms. A neighbor commented that around 2:00 am she had heard a woman screaming, but the sound then stopped. Switalski and Aguilar were reported to have been in a romantic relationship at some point.
In the previous Spring, Switalski was arrested on charges involving sexual assault and misconduct related to a romantic partner. After a court appearance in June, he was released on a $600,000 bail.
The teacher’s uncle, who described Aguilar as a caring and quiet person, raised alarm when she failed to show up for work, leading her school to contact her family. He mentioned that Aguilar had been in a relationship for about a year, but information about her partner was limited.
Currently, Switalski is detained with a bail set at $2 million.
In response to the tragedy, Aguilar’s brother, Juan Aguilar, has set up a GoFundMe page to fund her funeral expenses.
