June 3, 2009 12:55 PM | 4 Comments
Relatives of slain Posen toddler Yvette Palacios today were trying to come to terms with news that her baby-sitter's boyfriend has been charged with her murder.

Juan Melendez-Reynoso, 31, was charged last week with smothering 22-month-old Yvette with a dirty diaper in a fit of rage at his home May 24.

"He was angry that she'd soiled herself so he suffocated her with the diaper," Det. Sgt. Bob Quirk said.

Melendez-Reynoso, an illegal-immigrant who is considered a flight risk, was denied bond by Cook County Judge Edward Antonietti at the Markham Courthouse Saturday, said Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the Cook County state's attorney's office.

He is charged with first-degree murder and is in custody in Cook County Jail.

Authorities initially believed there was strong evidence that a badly bruised Yvette was raped before she was killed, but Quirk said the delayed results of an autopsy revealed no conclusive signs of sexual abuse.

The Illinois Department for Children and Family Services has taken Melendez-Reynoso's child into care, he added.

Yvette's babysitter, Natalia Pineda, at first told police Yvette died after falling and hitting her head while using her bed as a trampoline at the family's upstairs apartment on the 14300 block of Division Street. Yvette normally lived with her mother on the first floor of the same building, but her mother was enjoying a Saturday night out when Yvette died, authorities say.

Pineda had told police that Melendez-Reynoso had helped her try to revive the child in the shower, authorities said. But Quirk said that there was no evidence of a fatal fall. Pineda has not been charged with a crime.

Detectives from the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force were "always leery of the story" Pineda and Melendez-Reynoso told, he said, praising Spanish-speaking police officers from Chicago Heights, Oak Forest, Blue Island and the Illinois State Police for their "crucial" role in cracking the case.

Yvette's cousin Rocio Perez said her family had expected the charges to come but that they were still "shocked" to learn how police say Yvette died.

The Cook County medical examiner's office has yet to rule formally on the cause of Yvette's death, a spokesman said today.

Melendez-Reynoso is next due in court June 23.

-- Kim Janssen
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009 ... lling.html

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