Mother, Daughter Killed Pregnant Woman, Took Baby From Womb: Cops

CHICAGO — A mother and daughter were charged with murder after a pregnant woman was strangled to death on Chicago's Southwest Side, police said. The mother's boyfriend was charged with concealing the homicide. The body of 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez was discovered just after midnight Tuesday in a trash bin in the backyard of a home, police said.

Clarisa Figueroa, 46, and her daughter Desiree Figueroa, 24, have been charged with first degree murder and aggravated battery against a child, Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson said. The daughter confessed to helping her mother kill the 19-year-old, according to police. The mother's boyfriend, Piotr Bobak, 40, is charged with concealing a homicidal death, police said.

“Words really cannot express how disgusting and thoroughly disturbing these allegations are,” Johnson said. “I’d like to offer my sincere condolences and prayers to Marlen’s family, who instead of celebrating the arrival of a new life into their family are now mourning Marlen’s loss.”

All three are scheduled to appear in court Friday.

Detective Deputy Chief Brendan Deenihan called the murder a "pretty terrible and horrific case."

Ochoa-Lopez was killed with a coaxial cable and her baby was removed from her body, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner's office. The baby remains on life support at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn with no brain function.

Ochoa-Lopez, married with a 3-year-old son, was nine months pregnant when she went missing from the city's Pilsen neighborhood April 23, police said. She was last seen leaving Latino Youth High School.

Police said she went to a home in the 4100 block of West 77th Place for a stroller and baby clothes exchange that she arranged with Clarisa Figueroa, who she met on a Facebook group for moms.

According to several Facebook posts, the Clarisa Figueroa said she was pregnant and due in May. The same day Ochoa-Lopez went missing, neighbors said Clarisa Figueroa came out of the West 77th home screaming and holding a newborn baby, saying that the baby boy was her own and that he wasn't breathing. Police later confirmed that she tried to claim the baby as her own.

Paramedics from the Chicago Fire Department were called to the home for a newborn with "CPR in progress," and the baby was in critical condition, authorities said.

Ochoa-Lopez's family had been searching for her since the day she disappeared. Earlier in the investigation, the family hoped a newborn baby brought to a Chicago fire station could be hers, but the child was identified as another teen's baby.

On May 8, Ochoa-Lopez's black Honda Civic was found in the 7700 block of South Keeler Avenue, several blocks from the home where her body was found. Sources told WGN that the home has a hidden room in the basement.

Blood was found on the floors of the home and a cable was found in the trash that was used to kill Ochoa-Lopez, police said.

Figueroa apparently posted a GoFundMe page for the baby, according to screenshots provided by Ochoa-Lopez's family, but the page has since been taken down. The fundraiser sought $9,000, and included a picture of a newborn baby on life support.

Police said DNA samples from the baby matched Ochoa-Lopez's. The family has been visiting the baby at the hospital, and the father has named the boy Yovani Yadiel Lopez.

Ochoa-Lopez's husband Yovani Lopez, 20, spoke with reporters Thursday outside the Cook County medical examiner's office.

"I have a lot of faith that the baby's going to live," he said. "God is going to give me that miracle."

He said his 3-year-old son Joshua keeps asking where his mother is.

"I can't explain what happened because he's still a kid, but I try to make him happy," Lopez said.

Community members gathered at Lincoln United Wednesday to pray for Ochoa-Lopez and her family.

Shannon Antinori contributed to this report.