A 51-year-old Chicago woman named Clarisa Figueroa has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for luring a pregnant teenager to her home and using a butcher knife to cut her baby from her womb nearly five years ago.
Figueroa received her 50-year sentence in a Cook County courtroom on Tuesday after pleading guilty to first-degree murder for killing 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez in 2019.
Figueroa attracted 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, who was nine months pregnant, to her home on April 23, 2019, by offering free clothing for her unborn child, but then strangled her with a cable.
Afterward, Figueroa called 911 and falsely claimed to have given birth and that the child was not breathing.
The baby died about two months later.
Yovanny Lopez, the husband of the victim, described how the tragedy affected him and the couple’s older child, Joshua, who he said “has lost his mother forever.”
In a statement read in Spanish and English in the courtroom, 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.”
Authorities allege that shortly after Figueroa’s adult son passed away from natural causes, she claimed she was pregnant to her family. They said she planned for months to get a newborn, even posting an ultrasound and images of a nursery for a baby on Facebook.
She and Marlen Ochoa-Lopez connected through a Facebook group for expectant mothers in March 2019.
Investigators discovered Ochoa-Lopez had gone to the defendant’s home. Two weeks after, her car was found parked nearby.
Detectives found that Ochoa-Lopez had visited the defendant’s home before her disappearance.
Around two weeks after she vanished, law enforcement found her vehicle parked nearby and was informed by Desiree Figueroa, Clarisa’s daughter, that her mother had recently given birth.
DNA tests confirmed the child was not biologically related to Clarisa Figueroa.
Ochoa-Lopez’s body was found in a garbage can outside the Figueroa residence.
Authorities said Figueroa deceived her boyfriend, Piotr Bobak, into thinking he was the father of the child.
Bobak, who cleaned up the crime scene, received a four-year prison sentence after admitting to obstruction of justice last year.
Desiree Figueroa, aged 29, pleaded guilty to murder in January and received a 30-year prison sentence for her role in helping her mother. She also agreed to testify against her mother as part of her plea agreement.
