Marlen Ochoa-Lopez murder: Chicago police make three arrests
- Published
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson called the murder of Ms Ochoa-Lopez "disgusting and thoroughly disturbing"
Three people have been charged over the murder of a nine months-pregnant teenager whose baby was then cut from her body.
Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, 19, disappeared on 23 April. Her body was found three weeks later on 15 May.
Her baby remains "in grave condition", Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said.
Clarisa Figueroa, 46, and her daughter Desiree Figueroa, 24, have been charged with her murder.
Clarisa Figueroa's partner Piotr Bobak, 40, was charged with concealment of a homicide.
Detectives say they were first alerted to Clarisa Figueroa on 7 May - two weeks after Ms Ochoa-Lopez's disappearance - when friends of the teen directed police to her Facebook account where she had made arrangements with Ms Figueroa to pick up baby clothes.
Police allege that Ms Figueroa then lured Ms Ochoa-Lopez inside her home and, with the help of her daughter, strangled the 19-year-old with a cable. Once Ms Ochoa-Lopez had died, her baby was forcibly removed from her womb.
"Words really cannot express how disgusting and thoroughly disturbing these allegations are," Supt Johnson said.
That same day, Ms Figueroa called paramedics to her home, in the south-west of Chicago, claiming her newborn baby was not breathing.
Ms Figueroa later started a GoFundMe campaign that she claimed was for the funeral of her dying baby, a spokeswoman for Ms Ochoa-Lopez's family told AP news agency.
Subsequent DNA tests revealed that Ms Ochoa-Lopez was the baby's mother.
Desiree Figueroa confessed to helping her mother strangle Ms Ochoa-Lopez, external with a cable, CBS reported.
Allow Twitter content?
This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.
Police said Ms Ochoa-Lopez had met Clarisa Figueroa previously and had conducted prior exchanges of baby clothes.
On Thursday, Supt Johnson expressed his condolences to Ms Ochoa-Lopez's family in the wake of her "brutal" murder.
"They should be celebrating the birth of a young baby," he said. "Instead, they're mourning the loss of the mother and possibly that young child."
The three suspects are to appear in court on Friday.