Police detain individual accused of burying former girlfriend

Left: Geovanni Otero (U.S. Marshals). Right: Melody Rivera (Philadelphia Police Department).

New York State Police troopers on Saturday arrested a man wanted for murder in Philadelphia who has allegedly been on the run since November.

Geovanni Otero is accused of killing his ex-girlfriend 29-year-old Melody Rivera, who had been reported missing until cops found her body buried in a shallow grave. Rivera was last seen alive on Halloween 2024 around 7 p.m. in the 900 block of Sanger Street on Philadelphia’s north side. Police announced she was missing on Nov. 6 but her partially-decomposed body was recovered the next day in a park near Verree Road and Tustin Avenue.

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Detectives quickly identified Otero, 29, as a person of interest. Police sources told local Fox affiliate WTXF that Otero was under GPS monitoring from a previous gun-related arrest. GPS data and other evidence was allegedly able to show Otero bludgeoned Rivera to death before bringing her body to the park where he buried her in the shallow grave.

Police obtained a warrant for a violation of parole and then one for Rivera’s murder on Nov. 27. Otero was on the lam until Saturday when two New York state police troopers tried to pull over a stolen vehicle out of Virginia in Greenburgh, north of New York City. The driver, later identified as Otero, initially complied but sped away from the traffic stop, leading police on a short chase, troopers said in a press release. He crashed after about a mile and then tried to run away. Troopers quickly caught him and took him into custody. Otero was positively identified via his fingerprints.

He is in jail awaiting extradition back to Pennsylvania.