Hidden Horror: The Suitcase That Silenced Jorge Torres Jr.

A Florida woman is accused of zipping her boyfriend in a suitcase during a deadly game, capturing his final moments in a chilling video.

Profile: Sarah Boone

On the night of February 24, 2020, in Winter Park, Florida, a seemingly playful evening between a couple descended into tragedy. Sarah Boone, then 42, was drinking wine with her boyfriend Jorge Torres Jr., also 42, in their shared home. What Boone would later describe as a game of hide-and-seek became the beginning of a murder case that shocked the country, not just because of how Torres died (zipped inside a suitcase) but because of what Boone recorded while he was dying.

Boone claimed it was all a tragic accident. She told police that Jorge had voluntarily climbed into the suitcase as part of their playful antics, and that she zipped it shut thinking he could get out on his own. Then, she went upstairs, drank more, and passed out. By the next morning, Jorge was dead. Boone called 911 in a panic, telling dispatchers she had found him lifeless inside the suitcase. But what she failed to mention was what investigators would later find on her phone with two disturbing videos that changed the course of the investigation, and ultimately, her life.

In one of the videos, Torres can be heard inside the suitcase gasping for air and begging to be let out. “I can’t breathe,” he pleads. Boone, filming, responds coldly: “That’s what you do when you choke me… That’s what I feel like when you cheat on me.” There was no sign of concern in her voice no panic, no joking tone, just the cold edge of resentment. The second video reportedly shows her striking his hand with a bat as he tries to push against the fabric from the inside. She made no attempt to release him.

Prosecutors argued this was no game, but a deliberate act of cruelty. Boone was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. In the years leading up to her trial, she would change lawyers nine times, attempt to represent herself, and repeatedly claim she was the victim in a long history of domestic abuse at Jorge’s hands. Her story raised complex questions about domestic violence, trauma, and culpability but the footage spoke volumes to a jury.

The trial finally began in October 2024, more than four years after the killing. Boone took the stand and testified that Torres had physically abused her throughout their relationship smashing doors, choking her, and once throwing her across their son’s bed. She told the court she was terrified that night, and when Jorge asked to get into the suitcase, she saw it as a way to “de-escalate” things. She claimed she never meant for him to die, and that her mocking tone in the videos was the result of years of pent-up anger and trauma. In her own words, she was a “battered woman” doing what she had to do to survive.

But the prosecution challenged that narrative sharply. They argued that Boone had plenty of opportunity to intervene and to unzip the suitcase, call for help, or simply not film the slow death of the man she said she feared. Her laughter in the video and the language she used suggested not fear, but vengeance. To the jury, it was clear that Boone didn’t just let Torres die but she enjoyed it.

After less than two hours of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of guilty of second-degree murder on October 25, 2024. On December 2, she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The courtroom during sentencing was heavy with grief and anger. Torres’s mother, through tears, told the court how her mornings now began with silence waiting for a son who would never again knock on her door. His sister addressed Boone directly, saying, “You deserve to rot in prison. You’ve taken everything from us.”

Boone, on the other hand, didn’t go quietly. She filed a 27-page handwritten letter to Judge Michael Kraynick shortly after sentencing, in which she criticized her legal team, accused the court of misconduct, and vowed to appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary. In that letter, she claimed her trial had ignored the realities of domestic violence and that she had been painted as a monster without context.

Some members of the public were sympathetic, especially those who saw the case through the lens of domestic abuse. Boone’s friends, former cellmates, and even a jail chaplain testified about her spiritual awakening behind bars and the kindness she showed to other inmates. But many others viewed her with revulsion not just for the murder, but for the apparent lack of remorse and the almost surreal claim that prison had become “one of the best experiences of her life.”

The case has continued to draw attention from domestic violence advocates, true crime communities, and legal experts. It raises difficult questions: Can someone be both victim and villain? What weight should courts give to long-term abuse in cases where the retaliation becomes deadly? And is filming someone as they die ever anything other than murder?

Boone’s legal team has since filed a motion for appeal, claiming that her trial was rushed and that vital psychological evidence had been improperly excluded. But as of now, she remains incarcerated at a Florida state facility, serving a life sentence for the death of Jorge Torres Jr.

Final Takeaway

• Incident: On February 24, 2020, Sarah Boone zipped her boyfriend into a suitcase during what she claimed was a game of hide-and-seek. He suffocated overnight.
• Evidence: Boone filmed Torres pleading for his life, mocking him as he died.
• Trial: Boone claimed abuse and battered-spouse syndrome; the jury didn’t buy it.
• Verdict: Guilty of second-degree murder.
• Sentence: Life in prison without parole.
• Status: An appeal has been filed, but Boone remains incarcerated.

This case continues to haunt true crime circles not only for the cruelty of the act but for what it reveals about the fine line between victimhood and vengeance.