Lizzbeth Aleman-Popoca Vigil Calls Attention To Domestic Violence

EAST HAVEN, CT — Vigils Sunday for 27-year-old East Haven mom Lizzbeth Aleman-Popoca organized by family and friends is both to honor the young mother's memory, but also to call attention to domestic violence.

A cause of death has not yet been determined by the state medical examiner's office and police have not named a suspect in the killing of the mother of a 7-year-old daughter. Aleman-Popoca had been missing for more than two weeks when her body was found.

See related: East Haven Woman Missing; Foul Play Suspected

Organizer's of Sunday's vigil and caravan said Aleman was a "loving young woman, an artist, an excellent mother, a good daughter, a good sister and a friend who could be counted on at all times. Lizzbeth was someone exceptionally talented".

“It’s been more than a month Lizzbeth has been taken from us forever. A month after Lizzbeth’s lifeless body was found, the authorities have not made any arrests. Meanwhile, the East Haven Police department and the FBI, who is in charge with the investigation have asked us to keep quiet, but how can we when we know that as time goes by it could be happening to another mother daughter, or sister in the community.”

A caravan of family, friends and supporters are rallying Sunday in New Haven, East Haven and Branford with a vigil at 3 p.m. at the place where Lizzbeth’s body was found in Branford.

East Haven Police Capt. Joseph M. Murgo said that investigators have been working “tirelessly” on the case and have been in touch with Aleman’s family daily. He said police are awaiting a final determination from the state medical examiner’s office.

And he said that police “very much support the good and important work” of vigil organizers and the family. “Combating domestic violence is one of our main priorities as an agency,” he told Patch Sunday. “We applaud their work."

Aleman-Popoca's body was found after hours of meticulous crime scene processing by the Connecticut State Police Major Case squad, investigators armed with shovels dug carefully and methodically until the unearthed the woman who'd been missing for two weeks from her shallow grave behind garbage bins in the parking lot of LoMonaco's Ristorante in Branford.

Police sources confirmed that the father of her child and boyfriend Jonnathan Jara-Aucapina was a longtime employee and, he was not at work the night investigators found her body and "was not expected to show up." Police said their investigation led them to the Italian eatery's parking lot.

The young mom was reported missing July 3 by her family and Jara-Aucapina, the latter who said she went disappeared in the middle of the night June 30 to July 1.

Patch was on the scene for hours Wednesday as investigators flew a drone, took measurements and images, and put items in brown paper evidence bags. Then at dusk, started digging an area of "disturbed" earth in the back lot of the restaurant at 990 W. Main St. in Branford.

See related: Body Found In Shallow Grave Behind Restaurant

The investigation

East Haven Police, the state police major case squad, and a number of area police departments have been working the case since July 3. Indeed, a neighbor two doors down from the St. Andrews Avenue apartment Aleman-Popoca, her husband and daughter lived in, said detectives and investigators have "been here all the time."

Aleman-Popoca's husband told police when he reported her missing that he was phoned by his daughter the morning of July 1 who said she'd awoken and her mother was not in the house. But he did not speak to police until July 3.

"My sister would never leave her baby. She would never leave her. She's her priority," said Aleman-Popoca's sister, Yaneth in an interview with Patch earlier this week.

"She would have called me. We have good communication. She wouldn't leave us, leave her family without calling to say, 'Come take care of the baby.' She's not the kind of person to randomly go missing. No."

Yaneth Aleman said that her sister was looking for another place for her and her daughter to move when she last saw her on June 29.

See related: 'She Would Never Leave' Her Child, Sister Of Missing Mom Says

And at a news conference, the family pleaded for the community's help in locating her, but husband Jara-Aucapina was not there.

Yaneth Aleman said her sister was a devoted mother. She said she's invested in her child's education and recently got her help in math and reading: "She's really sweet, and she has good sense of humor, and she loves her baby. She'd do anything for her. She's a good mother."

Then, two days later, the family gets the worst possible news.

"We're helpless. We don't know what to do ...what to say (except) she didn't serve this," Yaneth said in a voice wracked with grief. "We want justice. Someone knows something, and we want justice for her now."

See related: Lizzbeth Aleman-Popoca's Family Wants Justice