A new beginning

Before moving to Maplewood in April 2018, Ms. Bermudez had a promising life in Bogotá. She studied international business at Universidad Santo Tomás in the Colombian capital and had gone into marketing. And she was pondering a marriage proposal from a longtime boyfriend, Juan Guillermo Rivera.

But friends said she felt she had lived a sheltered life and was not ready to start a family. Even Mr. Rivera, whom she had known since they were teenagers, supported the idea of her traveling and spending some time apart from him, perhaps dating others, before making the final commitment to build a home together.

“As the song says, ‘If you love her, let her be, if you love her, let her fly,’” said Mr. Rivera, 29, a project manager at an advertising company. “She decided she wanted to do this trip and I always supported her.”

Soon after arriving in the United States, Ms. Bermudez began working with Au Pair Care, a company that matched her with the Kimowitzes. Like most clients, the family asked her to live with them while she cared for their two young daughters. Her plan was to stay in Maplewood for at least a year, improve her English and find time to travel, her friends said.

“This was the first time that she was by herself,” a family friend, Natalia Garcia Barroso, said.

A troubled relationship

Mr. Porter, the son of a Brazilian woman and an American Marine, first caught Ms. Bermudez’s eye in an English-language class they were both taking. Though she was not looking for a serious relationship, she began dating him.

Early on, Ms. Bermudez noticed red flags suggesting Mr. Porter, 27, was manipulative and controlling, her friends said. They had only been dating for two months when he asked her to marry him, even though he still lived in his mother’s apartment in Elizabeth, N.J., Ms. Padilla, her college friend, said.