A man who was arrested in his New Jersey hometown after stabbing his 40-year-old girlfriend to death at a Virginia campground was convicted of murder on Monday.

Romi El-Sayed, 36, faces life in prison after a jury in Fairfax County found him guilty of murder and concealing a body, authorities said.

El-Sayed stabbed Cara Abbruscato 17 times, including six times in her neck, in a tent at Burke Lake Park on Sept. 23, 2023. He then concealed her body in the tent before driving her car to Paterson, the Office of the Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney said in a statement.

Other campers found Abbruscato’s body after noticing an odor coming from the tent.

El-Sayed was arrested in Paterson on Oct. 2, 2023 and extradited to Virginia on Nov. 9, 2023, officials said.

Investigators found El-Sayed’s DNA under Abbruscato’s fingernails as she had tried to fight him off during the attack, authorities said. Witnesses later told police they heard a woman screaming in the tent and a man shouting.

Both were under the influence of hallucinogenic mushrooms at the time of the murder, according to InsideNova.com. El-Sayed, a Vienna, Virginia resident, is scheduled to be sentenced on March 20, 2026.