Teenage mother had been strangled to death

By Dave Andrusko

A spokeswoman for the family of murdered teenager Marlen Ochoa-Lopez announced this morning that the teenager’s baby who was savagely cut from his mother’s womb, died today.

Yovanny Jadiel Lopez miraculously survived the April 23 strangulation death of his nine-month-pregnant mother but the baby was on life support and it was always very much touch and go.

“It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of baby Yovanny Jadiel Lopez,” the announcement said. “He passed away this morning Friday June 14, 2019 from his severe brain injury. Please keep his family in your thoughts & prayers as they go through this difficult time.”

“He is an angel, and he’s in his mom’s arms now,” family spokeswoman, Julie Contreras told CBS Chicago. “His father was able to hold him in his last minutes.”

Previously, Clarisa Figueroa, 46, and her daughter Desiree, 24, were each charged with first-degree murder and aggravated battery in Ochao-Lopez’s death. Piotr Bobak, Clarissa’s boyfriend, was charged with concealing a homicide.

Piotr Bobak, 40, Clarisa Figueroa, 46, and Desiree Figueroa, 24.

Chicago Police Department

Anthony Guglielmi, a Chicago police spokesman said “that he expects both women will now be charged with murder in the baby’s death,” the local CBS station reported.

Clarisa Figueroa engaged in an elaborate ruse, telling people she was pregnant. Police she “plotted for months to acquire a newborn, and that she posted an ultrasound and photos of a room decorated for a baby on her Facebook page,” CBS News reported.”In March, she and Ochoa connected on a Facebook page for pregnant women.”

She lured Ochoa-Lopez to her home, initially on about April 1. She went to Figuerora’s home a second time on April 23.

The family naturally panicked when Ochoa-Lopez did not pick up her other child at day care. In fact she had gone to Figuerora’s home where the daughter was distracting her by showing Ochoa-Lopez a photo album of her late brother. The mother came at her from behind and strangled her with a cord.

According to CBS News

Once Ochoa stopped showing signs of life, Clarisa Figueroa cut the baby from her womb and she and her daughter wrapped the teen’s body in a blanket, put it in a plastic bag and dragged it outside to a garbage can, according to prosecutors. Later that day, Clarisa Figueroa called 911 claiming that she had just given birth. A neighbor told CBS Chicago that the woman ran outside holding a newborn and wearing a blood-smeared shirt, but she had no blood on her gray shorts. The neighbor said the woman told her, “I just had the baby, and it’s not breathing.”

The Washington Post’s Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas, Rosemary Sobol, Jessica Villagomez, Jeremy Gorner reported

When paramedics arrived, they saw “the baby was in obvious distress,” according to department spokesman Larry Langford. A source said the baby “was basically blue.” The paramedics started advanced life support and radioed for another ambulance. The baby was taken in critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

For some time no one suspected Clarisa Figueroa was not the baby’s mother. Later, “DNA tests proved that the child she claimed to be hers was Ochoa-Lopez’s,” NBC News’s Ben Kesslen reported.

On May 9, the hospital contacted the Department of Children and Family Services. “Three weeks after Marlen’s disappearance, police said her remains were found in the Southwest Side home where police said she was murdered.”

Clarisa Figueroa, Desiree Figueroa, and Piotr Bobak are due back in court June 26.