A missing pregnant teenager has been found dead with her baby cut from her womb after she was lured to the Chicago home of a woman who offered to give her free children’s clothes.
Marlen Ochoa-Uriostegui, 19, was found strangled to death inside a trash can in the woman’s yard on Wednesday. She had been nine months pregnant.
Authorities discovered that her unborn son, who is still alive, had been ‘forcibly removed’ from her body after the murder.
On the same day Ochoa-Uriostegui disappeared three weeks ago, the woman – whose name has not been released – called 911 claiming she had given birth to a boy at the home and was suffering ‘post-delivery issues’.
The boy was admitted to the hospital in ‘grave’ condition and remains on life support.
Three of four people who were taken in for questioning have since been arrested.
Pictured are the three suspects who were arrested after the body of a pregnant teen was found in a trash can in their yard. They are suspected of strangling the teen to death and cutting out the child from her womb
The body of Marlen Ochoa-Uriostegui, 19, (left) was discovered on Wednesday. Her son (right) has been in the hospital for three weeks on life support
It was previously reported that Ochoa-Uriostegui’s body was discovered after police took the 46-year-old woman, her boyfriend, her adult daughter, and her daughter’s boyfriend all into custody for questioning.
Ochoa-Uriostegui (pictured in a recent photo with her three-year-old son) was nine months pregnant when she was killed
An anonymous tip led detectives to check the DNA of the baby after the woman set up a GoFundMe page to raise $9,000 for the baby’s funeral, claiming the boy was sick and about to die.
Results showed that the baby, who has been in the hospital for nearly a month, was Ochoa-Uriostegui’s child.
The disturbing story follows the same pattern as a number of fetal abduction cases in the US.
Ochoa-Uriostegui was last seen leaving Latino Youth High School in Pilsen on April 23.
Her family said she then drove to a home on Chicago’s Southwest Side after a woman on Facebook said she had a stroller and baby clothes she wanted to give away, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Ochoa-Uriostegui’s car was found a block away from the woman’s home earlier this month.
The teen reportedly met the 46-year-old woman on a Facebook group called ‘Help a Sister Out’.
‘Hello ladies, I’m due May 10 and I still need a ton of things for my son,’ she wrote on March 5.
The woman, who had claimed on the group that she was pregnant as well, responded and offered to give the teen ‘brand new boy clothes’ for free.
Social media screen grabs have revealed that the woman began posting about a baby as early as February 5. She shared a photo on her page of a crib up against the wall that was decorated with letters spelling out the name ‘Xander’.
‘Baby Xander’s crib is set up now we’re just waiting for your arrival,’ she wrote in the caption.
Xander is the same name she would use when she created the GoFundMe for the baby in May.
Ochoa-Uriostegui’s husband named the boy (pictured) Yadiel Yiovanni Lopez on Tuesday night. The family said they have no plans to take Yadiel off life support=
On March 5, the woman not only responded to Ochoa-Uriostegui on the Help A Sister Out Facebook page , but also posted on the group herself.
‘Who is due in May where is the May mama’s at?’ she wrote.
After one woman responded ‘right here’, she replied: ‘I don’t feel lonely anymore yay’.
Later that month, on her own Facebook page, the woman posted another photo of the nursery in her home. It showed that a mural of a tree had been painted to surround the letters spelling ‘Xander’.
‘Finally finished the babies section so all we need to do is wait for his arrival (sic),’ she wrote in the caption.
One friend who commented on the post asked how she could be pregnant again if she had gotten her ‘Fallopian tubes’ tied.
‘Yeah I’m having a baby I’m due in May,’ the woman said, claiming that her tubes were untied during ’emergency surgery’ for her appendix.
‘Crazy girl! Get yourself a lawyer regardless of the little miracle, get your $$$,’ her friend responded.
‘Yeah I was actually thinking about the same thing,’ she replied.
On the night the teen disappeared, the woman allegedly called 911 and said she had just given birth and the baby wasn’t breathing.
The woman told the dispatcher that the baby was ‘pale and blue’ and that she was doing CPR.
A neighbor saw the woman standing outside her front door with the baby, who was wrapped in a white sheet.
Authorities discovered that Ochoa-Uriostegui’s unborn son had been ‘forcibly removed’ from her body after the murder. Pictured is Ochoa-Uriostegui with her elder son in 2016
Hours after Ochoa-Uriostegui disappeared a 46-year-old woman, whose name has not been released, called 911 claiming she had given birth to a boy at the home and was suffering ‘post-delivery issues’. Pictured is a recent photo of Ochoa-Uriostegui during her second pregnancy
Ochoa-Uriostegui reportedly met the 46-year-old woman on a Facebook group called ‘Help a Sister Out’ when she posted about needing items for her son
She noticed blood stains on the woman’s hands and on her T-shirt, but none on her shorts.
‘I said, “What’s up?’ and she said, “I just had the baby. It’s not breathing,”‘ the neighbor, who did not want to be identified, told the Chicago Sun-Times. ‘She said, “I stood up and the baby came out.”‘
The neighbor said the paramedics never went inside the house.
‘Before she left in an ambulance, she told me several times, “Please call up someone to come and lock the house,”‘ the neighbor added, revealing that the woman was living in her parents’ basement.
Ochoa-Uriostegui was reported missing that same day after she didn’t pick up her three-year-old son from daycare.
An autopsy revealed that the teen died from ‘ligature strangulation’. Her death has been ruled a homicide.
Ochoa-Uriostegui’s body was discovered behind this home after police took the 46-year-old woman, as well as her boyfriend and her daughter, into custody for questioning
Pictured are authorities collecting evidence in the woman’s yard on Wednesday afternoon
Police were seen inspecting a fire pit in the woman’s backyard on Wednesday night (pictured)
‘We believe all of them played some role in this unspeakable act of violence,’ Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said of the three persons of interest.
‘We believe that she was murdered and we believe that the baby was forcibly removed following that murder.’ Charges have yet to be filed.
The GoFundMe that led to the woman’s arrest claimed that she was 36 weeks pregnant when she began to ‘experience labor pains while alone in her house’.
‘Within moments, she gave birth to her son Xander at 7lbs as she called 911 and followed the instructions of the emergency dispatcher,’ it read.
The GoFundMe claimed that doctors found the woman was ‘suffering from preeclampsia,’ pregnancy related hypertension that can lead to a stroke.
It stated that the woman and her boyfriend were ‘preparing to say goodbye to their baby boy’ and had accepted that ‘Xander won’t survive too much longer’.
‘Baby Xander, despite all he is going through is a little fighter, and has already captured the hearts of many family members,’ it added. ‘Honoring the short life that baby Xander had is one small way to help provide closure and start the mourning process for the family.’
A woman who used to let the 46-year-old woman babysit her child said she had begun to act strangely recently and frequently spoke about motherhood.
‘She told me how she was getting really attached to the baby, how she couldn’t wait to be a mom again,’ the woman told ABC 7.
Giovanni Lopez, Ochoa-Uriostegui’s husband, was able to visit his son for the first time on Tuesday night. They are pictured here on their wedding day in 2017
Ochoa-Uriostegui was reported missing on April 23 after she didn’t pick up her three-year-old son from daycare (pictured together with Lopez)
‘It’s painful to lose your wife, the woman you love the most,’ Lopez said after Ochoa-Uriostegui’s body was found
Giovanni Lopez, Ochoa-Uriostegui’s husband, was able to visit his son for the first time on Tuesday night and named him Yadiel Yiovanni Lopez.
Sara Walker, a student pastor who is helping Ochoa-Uriostegui’s family communicate with police, said the newborn has severe brain damage and is on life support.
‘It does not look good for the baby, but they are praying and hopeful,’ she added.
The family said they have no plans to take Yadiel off life support as they are holding onto hope that their last connection to Ochoa-Uriostegui will make it through.
Lopez, who had lived with Ochoa-Uriostegui for the last four years, said he was in a ‘lot of pain, a lot of anguish, a lot sadness’.
He said she dreamed of going to college and becoming a fashion designer.
‘It’s painful to lose your wife, the woman you love the most,’ he added. ‘It’s painful.’
Lopez (pictured outside the Medical Examiner’s office on Wednesday) said he was in a ‘lot of pain, a lot of anguish, a lot sadness’
Ochoa-Uriostegui’s father, Arnulfo Ochoa, had to be carried as he walked into the Medical Examiner’s office to see his dead daughter’s body on Thursday morning
WOMB RAIDERS: OTHER CASES OF FETAL ABDUCTION IN THE U.S.
Dynel Lane: Colorado – 2015
Colorado woman Dynel Lane was desperate to have a baby in 2015 and started convincing her friends and family that she was pregnant. Her 19-month-old son had died from an accidental drowning death in 2002.
She posted online photos of herself with an extended stomach and claimed for more than a year she was having a boy. Lane hatched a plan to steal a baby after her boyfriend became suspicious that her pregnancy was dragging out.
Lane posted a Craigslist ad asking for maternity clothes and victim Michelle Wilkins responded. Wilkins went to Lane’s home where she was hit with a lamp and stabbed with broken glass. Lane then uses kitchen knives to cut the unborn baby girl from Wilkins’ womb.
Wilkins survived the horror attack but her baby did not. Lane is currently serving a 100 year prison sentence.
Dynel Lane attacked Michelle Wilkins for her unborn baby in Colorado in 2015. Wilkins survived but her baby girl did not
Ashleigh Wade: New York – 2015
Ashleigh Wade, who was 22 at the time, faked her pregnancy in 2015 and stole ultrasound photos from the Internet, which she then posted on Facebook.
During the process, she reconnected with her childhood friend Angelikque Sutton who was eight months pregnant. The pair bonded over the pregnancies.
Sutton stopped by Wade’s home in 2015 before she was due to get married later that day. Wade slashed Sutton in the throat and stabbed her 50 times. She took out Sutton’s uterus and cut out the baby girl.
Wade then wrapped the baby up, gave her a bottle and called her boyfriend to say she had just given birth. Her boyfriend called 911 when he arrived at the home and saw the bloodbath.
The baby girl survived. Wade was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.
Ashleigh Wade killed her childhood friend Angelikque Sutton in the Bronx in 2015. The victim’s baby girl survived the attack
Annette Morales-Rodriguez: Wisconsin – 2011
Annette Morales-Rodriguez was in the middle of faking her third pregnancy – she claimed to have suffered two miscarriages – when she targeted Maritza Ramirez-Cruz in 2011.
She approached the victim – who was 40 weeks pregnant with her fourth child – at a community center and offered to give her a ride home.
Morales-Rodriguez instead drove the pregnant woman to her home where she bashed her with a baseball bat and strangled her to death. She then cut open the victim to retrieve the baby but he had already died.
She called 911 claiming to have just given birth but her baby wasn’t breathing. Morales-Rodriguez was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Annette Morales-Rodriguez killed Maritza Ramirez-Cruz in Wisconsin in 2011. The victim’s baby was not alive when removed from the womb
Pamela Causey-Fregia: Louisiana – 2011
Pamela Causey-Fregia had tried to stop her husband from leaving her by faking a pregnancy in 2011. She went to a hospital in search of a baby but found eight-month pregnant Victoria Perez.
She lured the expecting mother to her home after promising her free baby clothes. Fregia, in front of her own children, killed Perez with a hammer.
Fregia wasn’t able to retrieve the baby and burned the victim’s body behind her home. She was arrested years later when her own children turned her into police.
She was sentenced to life in prison.
Pamela Causey-Fregia killed Victoria Perez in Louisiana in 2011 for her unborn baby. Fregia was unable to retrieve the baby and burned the victim’s body instead
Kathy Coy: Kentucky – 2011
Kathy Coy, who was faking a pregnancy, befriended her victim Jamie Stice on Facebook and eventually asked her to help shop for baby clothes.
Coy used a stun gun to subdue the pregnant woman when they got into her car before she slit Stice’s wrists, cut the baby from her body and took the baby, uterus, ovaries and a placenta to a local hospital.
She initially told police she gave birth to the baby boy, but then said she bought him for $550.
The baby boy survived the attack. Coy was jailed for life without parole and was spared the death penalty.
Kathy Coy killed Jamie Stice in Kentucky in 2011. Stice’s baby boy survived the attack
Julie Corey: Massachusetts – 2009
Julie Corey beat and strangled her friend Darlene Haynes when she was eight months pregnant.
Corey had suffered a miscarriage three months earlier but told family and friends that she was still pregnant.
She strangled her friend with an electrical cord before slicing her open and removing the baby.
Corey, her boyfriend and the baby moved interstate until workers at a homeless shelter alterted police when they became suspicious.
She was sentenced to life in prison.
Julie Corey beat and strangled her friend Darlene Haynes when she was eight months pregnant in Massachusetts in 2009
Korena Roberts: Oregon – 2009
Korena Roberts battered eight months pregnant Heather Snively with a collapsible police baton in 2009.
She lured the victim to her home after connected on Craiglist while looking for baby clothes.
Roberts cut the baby from Snively’s abdomen. She was arrested after police were called and found her boyfriend trying to revive the baby boy and large amounts of blood on the floor.
The baby did not survive and Roberts was sentenced to life in prison.
Korena Roberts battered eight months pregnant Heather Snively with a collapsible police baton in 2009. The baby did not survive the attack
‘Why did these bad people do this? She did nothing to them. She was a good person.’
But the grieving widower said he and Ochoa-Uriostegui’s family are determined to get justice.
‘We’re gonna have justice with those responsible,’ he told Fox News 32. ‘We’re gonna go hard after them. We won’t let it go. They don’t know the pain they’ve caused. They don’t know.’
Neighbors said there was a lot of police activity on Wednesday night with detectives removing large amounts of evidence and searching the backyard and basement.
But the grieving widower said he and Ochoa-Uriostegui’s family (pictured during a press conference) are determined to get justice.