‘Womb raider’ who killed pregnant teen and cut baby from her jailed for 50 years
The young teen was lured to the killer's home by the promise of free baby clothes.
A woman called the ‘womb raider’ who killed a teenager and took her baby from her body has been jailed for 50 years.
Clarisa Figueroa, 51, killed Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, 19, on April 23 2019, who was lured to Figueroa’s home in Chicago by the promise of free baby clothes.
Figueroa enlisted the help of her daughter Desiree Figueroa, 29, who helped carry out the murder plot and pleaded guilty to murder in January.
Just before Marlen was killed, Desiree distracted her by showing photos of her dead brother before Figueroa killed her.
During the murder, Marlen tried to free herself so Figueroa yelled at her daughter: ‘You’re not doing your f****** job.’
Desiree then peeled Marlen’s fingers away from her neck and then Figueroa continued to strangle her for four to five minutes until she urinated.
She told her daughter ‘a person will urinate on themselves when they die.’
Desiree brought her mum a butcher’s knife, blanket and bucket and Figueroa cut Marlen’s belly open ‘from side to side’ and retrieved the baby, the placenta and the umbilical cord.
She placed the baby in a bucket with the placenta and wrapped Marlen’s body in a blanket and left her in a bin outside – with the electrical cable still tied around her neck.
Prosecutors said Figueroa then called emergency services to say she had given birth and the baby was not breathing.
The baby was taken to hospital but died two months later.
Hospital staff said she showed ‘no signs consistent with a woman who had just given birth.’
Figueroa was not arrested for several weeks until police received a tip about a Facebook interaction with Marlen.
Officers visited her home on May 7 and were told by Desiree her mum had just given birth but they found Marlen’s car nearby.
Figueroa, Desiree and Figueroa’s boyfriend, Piotr Bobak, 40, who helped cover up the murder, were all arrested when Marlen’s body was found.
In the weeks leading up to the murder, Figueroa told her family she was pregnant but DNA tests later proved the baby was not hers.
The trial also heard how she previously lost a child who died of natural causes.
Yovanny Lopez, Marlen’s husband and the dad of the child, said his eldest child Joshua had ‘lost his mother forever’.
In a statement, he said: ‘The memory of my infant son’s last breath in my arms is complete agony.
‘God’s justice will be served upon you the day you die.’
Bobak pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and was sentenced to four years in jail.
Desiree was sentenced to 30 years in jail and agreed to give evidence against her mum.
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