A mother and daughter were arrested in the horrific murder of a pregnant Chicago teenager who had been missing since late last month. The victim, 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, was strangled to death before her unborn baby was sliced from her womb.
Clarisa Figueroa, 46, her 24-year-old daughter, Desiree, have been charged with first-degree murder. Piotra Bobak, Figueroa’s 40-year-old boyfriend, was charged with concealing a homicidal death.
Ochoa-Lopez was nine months pregnant when she went missing on April 23, after leaving Latino Youth High School. The mother-to-be drove herself to Figueroa’s home where she thought that she would be picking up baby clothes and a double stroller. The teen met Figueroa on Facebook and had purchased baby items from her in the past, Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said during a press conference Thursday (May 16).
According to the Chicago Tribune, the elder Figueroa planned to keep the baby boy, who is reportedly brain dead from lack of oxygen. The newborn remains hospitalized on life support.
Desiree later confessed to helping her mother strangle Ochoa-Lopez to death, police said. Investigators searched Figueroa’s property Tuesday (May 14) and recovered Ochoa-Lopez’s remains from a trash bin in the backyard, along with the cable likely used in the murder.
Ochao-Lopez’s case had hit a roadblock until a friend tipped investigators off about her Facebook correspondence with Figueroa. Police initially visited Figueroa’s home on April 23 but were told that she had recently given birth at home. A DNA test later determined that she was not the baby’s mother.
A spokesperson for Ochao-Lopez’s family called the murder “surreal.” The teen is survived by a 3-year-old daughter and her husband, Yovani Lopez.
See more on the horrifying crime below.