In a puzzling case from Florida, a man reported his girlfriend missing in October, speculating to a friend that immigration officials might have taken her away.

Now, authorities have charged Saul Garcia Gonzalez with murder following the discovery of 37-year-old Nerida Martel’s body on October 11 in a canal near their home. Tragically, Martel, who lived with Gonzalez and their 2-year-old daughter, had been fatally shot.

Gonzalez, aged 40, informed authorities of Martel’s disappearance on October 9, claiming he last saw her on October 6, according to the Miami Herald. He mentioned she was supposed to drop their daughter at daycare and then catch a ride to her job, but she never reached her workplace that day.

To a friend of Martel’s who was worried about her sudden absence, Gonzalez allegedly suggested that she “might be under the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” according to the sheriff’s office. However, her name didn’t appear in detention records, prompting the friend to encourage Gonzalez to file a missing person report, which he did.

Investigators soon found inconsistencies in Gonzalez’s account of her last known whereabouts. He initially informed police he last saw her at home before he took their daughter to daycare, yet told others he left her at a bus stop. Furthermore, cell phone data seemed to contradict his narrative.

On October 6, for example — the day he claimed was when he last saw her — Martel’s cell phone remained at the home while Gonzalez’s phone traveled to the canal where her body was later found, less than half a mile from the home. Then, the police report says, Gonzalez’s phone returned home and both phones traveled to the canal, where Martel’s phone was turned off.

The report says that police had been called to the home in May by a woman in distress who was screaming for help. A man could be heard yelling in the background, but when police arrived, they could not find the woman who made the call.

According to WTMJ, a friend told investigators that Martel had been looking for a place to stay with her daughter to get out of the relationship.

Police say Gonzalez denied killing Martel. He’s been charged with second degree murder and is being held without bond.