A Los Angeles jury on Friday found Luis Antonio Gomes Akay guilty of murdering 22-year-old U.S. Army reservist Anna Laura Costa Porsborg, who vanished from a hotel in El Segundo in late December 2022 and has never been found. Jurors heard days of testimony about surveillance video, cellphone records, and disputed jailhouse conversations before returning the verdict. Sentencing is set for April 27, 2026.
Prosecutors say he admitted to the killing
Deputy District Attorney Hilary Williams told jurors that Gomes Akay privately confessed in jail to two undercover informants, saying he strangled Costa Porsborg and boasting that investigators would "never" recover her body. Prosecutors also argued he showed "zero remorse" when later questioned by detectives, according to MyNewsLA. The prosecution walked jurors through other leads, including a 2017 disappearance in Brazil that they said suggested a pattern, while the defense countered that the evidence left plenty of reasonable doubt. Court records cited in the outlet show Gomes Akay has remained in custody on $2 million bail as he awaits his April 27, 2026, sentencing.
Hotel footage, a bulging suitcase, and mountain searches
Detectives and surveillance footage at trial showed the couple checking in to a DoubleTree by Hilton in El Segundo, then, two days later, captured Gomes Akay leaving the hotel struggling to drag a bulging blue suitcase, as detailed by the Los Angeles Times. Investigators used cellphone location data to chart a search zone in the Angeles National Forest. Brazilian coverage has reported that Costa Porsborg’s phone was later found in mountain terrain, a discovery that triggered renewed ground searches, according to O Liberal.
Defense rejects confession, points to holes
Taking the stand in his own defense, Gomes Akay testified that Costa Porsborg stormed out of their hotel room after an argument about his phone and insisted he did not kill her. His attorney told jurors the defendant felt intimidated and pressured by two jailhouse informants into making incriminating statements that were not true, and urged the panel to see reasonable doubt instead of certainty, according to MyNewsLA. The defense also attacked the prosecution’s suitcase narrative and pointed to deleted messages pulled from the defendant’s phone as a reason to question the state’s version of events.
Family, Brazil, and wider fallout
Costa Porsborg’s mother and other relatives traveled from Brazil to attend parts of the proceedings, turning a South Bay courtroom into an emotional outpost for a family watching from thousands of miles away. Prosecutors also brought in relatives of a Brazilian woman who disappeared in 2017 to testify. Coverage in Brazil has kept the case in the headlines and applied pressure on officials to keep searching, according to Portal Do Carpe9 (citing G1 Santare9m) on the families' participation and the international attention surrounding the trial.
Legal note: the challenge of a "no-body" case
No-body homicide prosecutions are relatively rare and typically depend on a web of circumstantial evidence, including surveillance footage, digital data, and witness testimony, to convince jurors beyond a reasonable doubt. Earlier coverage highlighted how investigators in this case worked backward from hotel cameras, phone records, and travel details to construct a timeline without a body. In closing arguments, prosecutors told jurors the combined weight of that evidence met the legal standard for a murder conviction even though Costa Porsborg’s remains have not been found, a process the Los Angeles Times previously described in reporting on a preliminary hearing.
