Sarah Boone and the suitcase in Winter Park
She said it was a game of hide-and-seek. Two videos on her own phone told a jury something else.
- When
- February 23 to 24, 2020
- Where
- Winter Park, Florida
- Status
- Convicted
Content note domestic violence, death by suffocation. No graphic images.
In brief
On the night of February 23, 2020, Sarah Boone zipped her boyfriend, Jorge Torres Jr., 42, into a suitcase in their Winter Park, Florida, apartment and went to bed. He was dead the next morning. Boone told police they had been drinking and playing hide-and-seek, but her phone held two videos from that night showing Torres pleading to be let out while she laughed. A jury convicted her of second-degree murder in October 2024, and she was sentenced to life in prison. Her appeal was still pending in 2026.
Turning pointBoone handed investigators her phone at the scene. On it were two videos from the night before, recorded while Torres was trapped inside the suitcase.
- Victim
- Jorge Torres Jr., 42
- Convicted
- Sarah Boone, his girlfriend, second-degree murder
- Where
- Their apartment in Winter Park, Florida, near Orlando
- When
- Night of February 23, 2020; found dead February 24
- Key evidence
- Two videos Boone recorded on her phone while Torres was inside the suitcase
- Sentence
- Life in prison; appeal pending as of 2026
Watch the episode
Timeline
July 2018
Boone and Torres are both arrested in a domestic incident. Boone is charged with battery by strangulation; that charge is later dismissed. Torres is arrested four times over the course of the relationship on allegations of battery against Boone.
February 23, 2020Night
At their Winter Park apartment, Boone zips Torres inside a suitcase. She records two videos on her phone while he is inside, then goes upstairs to bed.
February 24, 2020
Boone calls 911 and reports that her boyfriend is dead. She tells investigators they had shared a bottle of wine and were playing hide-and-seek, and that she fell asleep with him still in the suitcase.
February 24, 2020
Boone gives her phone to forensic investigators. They find the two videos. Torres's death is ruled a homicide, and Boone is charged with second-degree murder.
2020 to 2024
The case is delayed repeatedly. Eight attorneys withdraw from representing Boone, and a judge rules she has forfeited her right to court-appointed counsel.
2024
Boone rejects a plea offer to manslaughter with a 15-year sentence.
October 14, 2024
The trial begins in Orange County. The defense argues Boone suffered from battered woman syndrome.
October 25, 2024
After closing arguments, the jury deliberates for less than two hours and finds Boone guilty of second-degree murder.
December 2, 2024
Judge Michael Kraynick sentences Boone to life in prison.
2026
Boone's appeal is pending before Florida's Sixth District Court of Appeal, case 6D2025-0206.
The full story
What happened
Sarah Boone and Jorge Torres Jr. had a violent relationship, and it showed on both sides of the police record. Torres had been arrested four times on allegations of battery against Boone, and she had bailed him out every time. Boone had been arrested once, in 2018, on a strangulation charge against him that was later dismissed.
On the night of February 23, 2020, the two were in their apartment in Winter Park, near Orlando. By Boone’s account they split a bottle of wine and decided to play hide-and-seek, and thought it would be funny for Torres to get inside a suitcase. She zipped it shut. She went upstairs and, she said, fell asleep.
In the morning she called 911 and said her boyfriend was dead. Torres was still inside the suitcase. He was 42.
The phone
At the scene Boone gave investigators her phone. On it were two videos she had recorded the night before. In them, Torres is inside the suitcase, pleading for help and saying he cannot breathe. Boone can be heard laughing and talking back to him, telling him this is what he does to her when he chokes her and when he cheats on her.
When detectives interviewed her the next day, Boone said she did not remember recording the videos. She later admitted hitting Torres with a baseball bat while he was in the suitcase. His death was ruled a homicide, and she was charged with second-degree murder.
Four years to trial
The case dragged. The pandemic delayed it, and then Boone’s lawyers kept leaving. Eight attorneys withdrew, seven of them appointed by the court, until Judge Michael Kraynick ruled she had forfeited her right to a court-appointed lawyer. At one hearing, representing herself, she handed up a letter that included a hand-drawn advertisement seeking a lawyer. Attorney James Owens took the case and discussed a plea to manslaughter with a 15-year sentence. Boone turned it down.
The trial opened on October 14, 2024. The defense argued that Boone suffered from battered woman syndrome after years of abuse. The prosecutor told jurors Torres weighed 103 pounds when he died and that Boone had zipped him in to punish him. The jury watched the videos.
On October 25 the jurors deliberated for less than two hours and found her guilty of second-degree murder. On December 2, 2024, she was sentenced to life in prison.
Boone appealed. As of 2026 the case was still before Florida’s Sixth District Court of Appeal, including a challenge to how jurors were instructed on self-defense. The conviction stands while the appeal is pending.
What the video couldn't include
The violence ran both ways on paper
Before his death, Torres had been arrested four times on allegations of battery against Boone, and she bailed him out each time. Boone was arrested once, in 2018, on a strangulation charge against Torres that was later dismissed.
What the videos showed
According to court reporting, one video shows Torres pleading for help from inside the suitcase while Boone laughs and talks back to him, referring to him choking her and cheating on her. Boone later told detectives she did not remember recording them.
She later admitted hitting him
Boone later admitted striking Torres with a baseball bat while he was inside the suitcase.
Eight lawyers walked away
Eight attorneys withdrew from her case, seven of them court-appointed. At one hearing where she represented herself, Boone handed the judge a letter that included a hand-drawn advertisement looking for a lawyer.
She turned down 15 years
Before trial, her attorney discussed a plea to manslaughter with a 15-year sentence. Boone rejected it and went to trial on the murder charge.
The prosecution's picture of Torres
In opening statements the prosecutor told jurors Torres weighed 103 pounds at the time of his death, and argued Boone left him zipped inside to punish him.
The video and the record
The episode tells this case in about 2 minutes with illustrated recreations. Here is how its key moments line up with what is documented.
The neighbors knew their names. The cops knew their address.
Dramatized
Both had prior domestic violence arrests, which is documented. What the neighbors knew is not.
She had no intention of opening it
Dramatized
Intent was the prosecution's argument. Boone said she fell asleep. The jury convicted her of second-degree murder, not premeditated murder.
She pointed her phone at the suitcase and pressed record
Documented
Investigators found two videos from that night on her phone, and jurors watched them at trial.
Jorge alive. Jorge begging. Jorge dying.
Dramatized
The videos show Torres pleading to be let out. Nothing in the record says they captured his death.
She called 911. Her voice was calm.
Dramatized
The 911 call is documented. Her tone on the call is not described in our sources.
Ten days of testimony. Ninety minutes of deliberation.
Compressed
The trial opened October 14, 2024 and ended October 25. Reports put deliberations at about ninety minutes, under two hours.
The suitcase, the room, the phone glow
Reconstruction
AI-generated illustrations. The real videos are never shown or reenacted.
What the four marks mean
- Documented
- Shown as it is recorded in court filings, police statements, or consistent reporting.
- Reconstruction
- A reasonable visual recreation of a documented event. The event happened; the image is illustrative.
- Compressed
- Real events shortened, merged, or reordered to fit the runtime.
- Dramatized
- A storytelling choice (framing, wording, emphasis) that the record does not establish.
Sources
- [1]Wikipedia“Murder of Jorge Torres”Compiles the arrest report, trial and sentencing coverage with citations.
- [2]CBS News MiamiSentencing report
- [3]NBC NewsSentencing report
- [4]Florida Sixth District Court of AppealOrder in Boone v. State, case 6D2025-0206
- [5]Florida Sixth District Court of AppealAppellate filing in case 6D2025-0206Discusses the suitcase confinement and the self-defense jury instruction challenged on appeal.
SourcedFacts in this file come from the reporting listed above. Some details are still waiting on primary records. Last reviewed September 12, 2026. How we check cases
