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U.S. NEWS Friday 17 May 2019

Pregnant Chicago woman slain,

baby cut from her womb

By CARYN ROUSSEAU and friends of Ochoa-Lopez di- gives us our child because
DON BABWIN rected detectives to her so- that is a blessing that my
Associated Press cial media account, which wife left for us,” Yiovanni Lo-
CHICAGO (AP) — A Chi- showed she had commu- pez told reporters through
cago woman who sold nicated with Figueroa in a Spanish interpreter out-
baby clothes to a preg- a Facebook group for ex- side the county morgue
nant woman and lured her pectant mothers. where the teen’s body was Arnulfo Ochoa, the father of Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, is
back to her house with an At the same time, Clarisa taken. The three suspects surrounded by family members and supporters, as he walks
offer of more clothing has Figueroa had started a Go- were scheduled to appear into the Cook County medical examiner’s office to identify his
been charged with mur- FundMe campaign for the Friday in bond court.q daughter’s body, Thursday, May 16, 2019 in Chicago.
der after allegedly stran- funeral of what she said Associated Press
gling the woman with a was her dying baby, said
cord and cutting the infant Sara Walker, a spokeswom-
from her womb, police said an for Ochoa-Lopez’s fam-
Thursday. Investigators said ily. Police then conducted
Clarisa Figueroa, 46, want- DNA tests, which showed
ed to raise another child that Ochoa-Lopez and her
two years after her adult husband, Yiovanni Lopez,
son died of natural causes. were actually his parents,
“Words cannot express Walker said.
how disgusting and thor- When police arrived to
oughly disturbing these al- question Figueroa, her
legations are,” Police Su- daughter told them that
perintendent Eddie John- her mother was in the hos-
son told reporters at a news pital with some kind of leg
conference to announce injury, before adding that
the murder charges she had just delivered a
against Figueroa and her baby, said Brendan Deeni-
24-year-old daughter, De- han, deputy chief of de-
siree Figueroa. The moth- tectives.
er’s boyfriend, 40-year-old “She told an extremely odd
Piotr Bobak, was charged story,” and officers “kind of
with concealment of a ho- knew where this is head-
micide. The charges come ed,” Deenihan said.
three weeks after 19-year- Police then searched the
old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez neighborhood and found
disappeared and a day Ochoa-Ortiz’s car a few
after her body was discov- blocks away. On May
ered in a garbage can in 14, they returned with a
the backyard of Figueroa’s search warrant, finding
home on the city’s South- cleaning supplies as well as
west Side, about 4 miles evidence of blood in the
from her own home. hallway and in the bath-
According to police, the room. They later found the
teenager drove from her teen’s body in a trash can
high school to Figueroa’s behind the house and re-
home in response to an covered surveillance video
offer of free clothes that that showed Ochoa-Ortiz’s
Figueroa had posted on vehicle driving through
Facebook. When she ar- the neighborhood on the
rived, police said, she was day they believed she was
strangled and the baby killed, authorities said.
cut from her body. Four people were taken
A few hours later, Figueroa into custody.
frantically called 911, Ochoa-Lopez’s family had
claiming that her newborn been looking for the teen
baby was not breathing. since her disappearance,
When first responders ar- organizing search parties
rived, the child was blue. and holding news confer-
They tried to resuscitate the ences as they pushed po-
infant and transported the lice for updates in the in-
boy to a nearby hospital, vestigation.
where police said he re- Her father, Arnulfo Ochoa,
mained in grave condition said relatives were grate-
and was not expected to ful to have found her. Now
survive. they want justice.
Police did not connect the The family was also bracing
woman’s disappearance for the baby’s death, while
and the 911 call about the still hoping for a miracle.
baby until May 7, when “We plead to God that he