Chicago woman sentenced for killing pregnant woman and cutting the baby out of her womb

CHICAGO (TCD) -- A 51-year-old woman will likely spend the rest of her life in prison after she was sentenced for killing a pregnant 19-year-old and cutting the child out of the victim’s womb.

WGN-TV reports Clarisa Figueroa pleaded guilty to the April 2019 murder of Marlen Ochoa-Lopez on Tuesday, April 16, and was subsequently sentenced to 50 years in prison. Her daughter, Desiree Figueroa, pleaded guilty to murder in January and will be incarcerated for 30 years. Desiree Figueroa reached a plea deal with prosecutors in exchange for testifying against her mother even though Clarisa Figueroa opted not to stand trial.

According to the bond proffer published by The Associated Press, Clarisa Figueroa’s son died from natural causes in 2018. Not long after that, she told her relatives she was pregnant. She joined a Facebook group for expecting mothers and posted in March 2019 asking if anyone else was due in May.

Figueroa and Ochoa-Lopez connected and started messaging each other. Figueroa reportedly offered Ochoa-Lopez some baby clothes. Around the same time, Figueroa reportedly told her daughter she "needed help killing a pregnant woman and taking a baby."

Ochoa-Lopez went to Figueroa’s house on April 1, 2019. Desiree Figueroa’s boyfriend was also there, and he said Clarisa and Desiree Figueroa "kept acting strange." The boyfriend said he was going to call police if they planned to kill Ochoa-Lopez, but the women brushed it off as an April Fools' joke.

On April 23, 2019, Ochoa-Lopez returned to Figueroa’s house. Desiree and Clarisa Figueroa met in the kitchen and devised a plan to strangle Ochoa-Lopez and cut the child out of her womb. While Ochoa-Lopez sat on the couch, Clarisa Figueroa strangled her from behind with a cord for several minutes until she died.

Clarisa Figueroa then ordered her daughter to grab a blanket, butcher knife, and plastic bag. She used the knife to cut open Ochoa-Lopez’s abdomen and removed the umbilical cord, placenta, and child from her womb. They put the baby in a bucket and moved Ochoa-Lopez’s body to a dumpster after wrapping her remains in plastic.

Afterward, Clarisa Figueroa called 911 and said she had given birth and the infant was not breathing. The Chicago Fire Department responded to the scene and found Figueroa holding the newborn. Figueroa and the child were transported to a nearby hospital, where the baby was placed in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit due to "zero brain activity."

Medical personnel at the hospital determined Figueroa "showed no signs consistent with a woman who had just delivered a baby." DNA tests later showed that Figueroa was not the child’s mother.

Desiree Figueroa reportedly moved Ochoa-Lopez’s car away from their home and threw out the victim’s phone.

Ochoa-Lopez’s husband reported her missing April 24, 2019. That same day, Clarisa Figueroa and her boyfriend, Piotr Bobak, started cleaning the house to hide evidence. Investigators learned Ochoa-Lopez had spoken to Figueroa on Facebook and started looking into Figueroa. They also found Ochoa-Lopez’s car a few blocks from Figueroa’s house.

On May 14, 2019, Chicago Police Department detectives executed a search warrant at Figueroa’s home. Bobak was reportedly washing a rug, and when he saw the officers, he "dropped the bleach and hose and walked away."

Investigators discovered Ochoa-Lopez’s remains in a garbage can on a corner piece of the property. The medical examiner determined she had been strangled to death and noted her abdomen had been cut open.

Bobak pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in January 2023, according to CBS Chicago. He was sentenced to four years in prison but received almost that same amount of credit in time served.

WGN reports the child, Yovanny Jadiel Lopez, died June 14, 2019, after being on life support.

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