Thread: Family Of Slain Pregnant Woman Pray For Miracle For Baby, Ask If Undocumented Status

Family Of Slain Pregnant Woman Pray For Miracle For Baby, Ask If Undocumented Status Slowed Investigation

The family of Marlen Ochoa-Uriostegui, 19, said some neighbors of the crime scene may have stayed silent because of their immigration status.
Published on May 16, 2019 2:25PM CDT

MEDICAL DISTRICT — The devastated husband and parents of a Little Village woman who was strangled and had her unborn baby stolen from her womb identified her body Thursday — and asked why it took so long for their daughter to be found.
Her father questioned whether the teen’s status as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico impacted the investigation, and wondered if witnesses were reluctant to share information on her disappearance for the same reason.
Marlen Ochoa-Uriostegui, 19, went missing April 23 after going to a Southwest Side home to pick up a stroller and baby clothes from strangers she met on a Facebook group for young mothers, her family said.
After weeks of searching, her body was found Wednesday in in the 4100 block of West 77th Place.
Marlen Ochoa-Uriostegui At the same address on April 23, the fire department received a 911 call from a woman saying she gave birth to an unresponsive child, said Larry Langford, a spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department.
But DNA tests later showed the baby belonged to Ochoa-Uriostegui and her husband, Yovani Lopez. The child is still alive, but has brain damage, Lopez said.
UPDATE: Three Charged In Murder Of Little Village Teen Who Had Her Unborn Baby Stolen From Her Womb
Lopez said his son Yovani Yadiel Lopez was in “grave condition” at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
“He’s in a coma and the doctors said. …The manner in which he was taken out of her body left him with brain damage,” Lopez said.
“We need a miracle to save him. We are hoping and praying he recuperates. He’s an angel and blessing my wife left for us.”
Yovani Lopez, husband of the slain woman, outside the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.Mauricio Pena/Block Club Chicago As rain poured down outside Cook County Medical Examiner’s office Thursday afternoon, Lopez told a crowd of reporters that it was “painful to lose someone” with whom he shared so many happy moments.
“She didn’t deserve it,” he said. “This is not the outcome we wanted, but she’s been found and she’s at peace with God.”
Arnulfo Ochoa called his daughter a “young dreamer with a big future.”
Ochoa said the family came to the U.S. to give his daughter a better life — as she was doing with her three-year-old son and her baby on the way — before “people took her life away.”
Arnulfo Ochoa, center, called his daughter a “young dreamer with a big future.”Mauricio Pena/Block Club Chicago “Even as a young mother, she continued school. She wanted to give the best for her children,” Ochoa said.
Ochoa said his daughter was undocumented and believed many residents where her body was found knew more information than they shared — possibly because of their undocumented status.
But, reflecting on the three-week investigation, Ochoa also said police detectives did not move fast enough on leads.
The same week she was reported missing, his daughter’s Facebook exchange with the woman from the since-shutdown “Help A Sister Out” Facebook group was sent to police, he said.
“She could have been found sooner,” Ochoa lamented.
Ochoa said he even hired a private detective to move the investigation along.
Ochoa also noted that, after reporting her and her car missing, the teen’s car was collecting multiple tickets a block from where his daughter was found, Ochoa said. Why didn’t the ticket writer know that the car had been reported missing, the family wondered.
Police defended their handling of the case Thursday afternoon, but said they understood the family’s grief and outrage.
Marlen Ochoa-Uriostegui (right) was murdered by Clarisa Clarisa Figueroa, 46, and her daughter Desiree Figueroa, 24, police said. Piotr Bobak, 40, was charged with one felony count of conceal homicidal death. Her mother, Raquel Uriostegui, said it wasn’t until having to come to the morgue that family was able to have some closure.
Uriostegui remembered her daughter as a kind, humorous, “happy girl” with many dreams. “She was an angel,” her mother said.
“To lose a child is one the hardest things a parent could go through,” Uriostegui said through tears.
“I just pray to God to give me peace.”
Raquel Uriostegui (sunglasses) remembered her daughter as a kind, humorous, “happy girl” with many dreams. “She was an angel,” her mother said.Mauricio Pena/Block Club Chicago Her daughter’s dream was to see her grandparents, who she hadn’t seen since she came to the U.S. at the age of two.
Her mother pleaded for assistance for help getting travel visas for her daughter’s grandparents.
“Even if she can’t be here physically, I want to give her last wish,” she said.
After learning of her death, the family created a fundraiser on Facebook to accommodate for funeral expenses. More than 350 people had donated $9,720 toward their $20,000 goal.
Ochoa-Uriostegui’s alleged killers are due in court Friday morning.
Stay tuned to Block Club Chicago for live updates.
Previous coverage:
Pregnant Little Village Mom Was Picking Up A Stroller When She Was Murdered, Had Baby Stolen From Her Womb
Pregnant Little Village Teen Found Murdered, Her Unborn Baby Stolen From Her Womb
Persons Of Interest Questioned In Disappearance Of Pregnant Teen Marlen Ochoa-Uriostegui
Pregnant Woman, 19, Reported Missing From Little Village



https://blockclubchicago.org/2019/05...investigation/

Hospital did not alert authorities about woman charged in Marlen Ochoa-Lopez's brutal murder: child welfare agency

Alex Lasker, AOL.com
May 20th 2019 10:59AM



A child welfare agency claims the hospital where a woman suspected in Marlen Ochoa-Lopez's murder brought the pregnant teen's baby after allegedly cutting him from her womb did not report the suspicious incident until two weeks later.


Illinois Department of Children and Family Services spokesman Jassen Strokosch said Saturday that Christ Medical Center did not alert them about Clarisa Figueroa after the 46-year-old arrived at the hospital with a critically injured newborn despite showing no signs of having just given birth during a physical exam.


Strokosch claimed the agency was not alerted about the case until May 9, amid questions about who had custody of the child and could make medical decisions on his behalf, the Associated Press reports.


DNA testing later revealed that Figueroa was not the baby's mother and that Ochoa-Lopez and her husband, Yovany Lopez, were actually his parents. The infant, who the victim's family named Yadiel, is not expected to survive.


"We don't know what was happening at the hospital," Strokosch said, adding he couldn't speculate as to why the agency wasn't contacted sooner.
Photos from the case:
16 PHOTOS
Teen mother Marlen Ochoa-Lopez killed, infant cut from womb
See Gallery





Figueroa was charged with killing Ochoa-Lopez on May 16 after police found the 19-year-old's body in a trash can outside the suspect's Scottsdale home.


Chicago police say Figueroa cut the victim's baby out of her womb on April 23 after luring Ochoa-Lopez to her home with the promise of free baby items and strangling her to death with the help of her daughter 24-year-old Desiree Figueroa, who was also charged with murder.


Figueroa then called 911 to report she had given birth to a baby who wasn't breathing and was rushed to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn with the newborn, who remains on life support in "grave" condition.


Prosecutors say that when Figueroa was brought to the hospital, she had blood on her upper body and her face, which a hospital employee cleaned off, but showed no signs of childbirth.


Ochoa-Lopez’s family members reported her missing on April 23, the same day she is believed to have been killed, and spent the following weeks searching for her and holding press conferences, pleading for the public's help in finding her. Her father, Arnulfo Ochoa, voiced frustrations with the speed of the investigation into her disappearance.
Julie Contreras, a spokeswoman for the teen's family, told reporters that what her loved ones are going through is “a nightmare, a horror film.”
During a Friday court hearing, a judge denied bail for Figueroa, her daughter and the elder Figueroa's boyfriend, 40-year-old Piotr Bobak, who was charged with concealment of a homicide.

https://www.aol.com/article/news/201...PaUpqpQA0yVT0t