Daughter will testify against her mother in murder of Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, whose baby was cut from her womb (2024)

The daughter of a woman accused of strangling a pregnant teen and cutting out her unborn child has agreed to testify against her mother.

In a deal that will send her to prison for 30 years, Desiree Figueroa pleaded guilty Monday to the 2019 murder of 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez.

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Prosecutors allege that Figueroa’s mother, Clarisa Figueroa, lured Ochoa-Lopez to her Southwest Side home with an offer of free baby clothes. She is accused of using a length of coaxial cable to strangle the teen, then a knife to cut Ochoa-Lopez’s child from the womb.

Desiree Figueroa, 29, has told police she pried Ochoa-Lopez’s fingers off the cable as the teen struggled, then brought her mother a kitchen knife to cut open Ochoa-Lopez’s abdomen.

The deal with prosecutors requires her to take the stand at her mother’s trial, now set for Jan. 26. Clarisa Figueroa has a status hearing in her case Tuesday.

Provided; Mitch Dudek/Sun-Times

Friends said Ochoa-Lopez had been corresponding with Clarisa Figueroa on a Facebook page for expectant mothers, and that the older woman had offered Ochoa-Lopez, who was nine months pregnant, free clothes for her child.

The Figueroas had plotted the killing for weeks before luring Ochoa-Lopez to their home in the 4100 block of West 77th Place, according to prosecutors. Clarisa Figueroa had asked for her daughter’s help “killing a pregnant woman and taking her baby,” a request Desiree told her boyfriend about some time before April 2019.

On April 1, Clarisa Figueroa invited Ochoa-Lopez to their house while Desiree’s boyfriend was present. The Figueroas were “acting weird” throughout the visit, prompting the boyfriend to tell Desiree he would call police if she and her mother planned on killing Ochoa-Lopez, prosecutors said.

Ochoa-Lopez left unharmed, and the Figueroas told the boyfriend the murder plot had been an April Fool’s joke, prosecutors said.

Three weeks later, Ochoa-Lopez returned. As she leafed through a photo album of Clarisa Figueroa’s son, who had died recently of natural causes, Clarisa allegedly looped a length of cable around Ochoa-Lopez’s neck and began choking her.

When the teen managed to get her hands under the cable, Clarisa allegedly shouted to her daughter, “You’re not doing your f—-ing job.” Desiree Figueroa then pulled Ochoa-Lopez’s fingers from the cable “one by one,” and after a few minutes, the teen stopped struggling.

Clarisa Figueroa allegedly then cut open Ochoa-Lopez’s stomach and removed the baby, put the teen’s body in a plastic bag and carried it to a trash can at the side of the house, then called 911 to report having given birth.

The child, she told 911 operators, was not breathing. The baby was taken to Christ Hospital and placed on life-support, with a GoFundMe page set up saying the baby was expected to die and seeking $9,000 for his funeral.

Desiree Figueroa took Ochoa-Lopez’s phone and car, went to her sister’s house, then parked the car a few doors from her own house.

When police visited Clarisa Figueroa’s house, her boyfriend Piotr Bobak was hosing off a bleach-soaked rug. He was charged with concealing the murder and also has pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to four years in prison.

The baby was eventually identified as Ochoa-Lopez’s through DNA. He died after several weeks without ever leaving the hospital. He was named for his father, Yovani Lopez.

Desiree Figueroa was pregnant herself at the time of the murder and gave birth six months later in November of 2019.

The case is similar to one that occurred in DuPage County nearly three decades ago.

Debra Evans and her two children were killed in their Addison apartment in 1995. Her 7-year-old son Joshua was abducted and stabbed to death. His body was left in an alley.

Evans’ womb was slashed and her nearly full-term son was removed. The baby, Elijah, survived and his brother Jordan was unharmed.

Levern Ward, who fathered Elijah and Jordan, is serving a life sentence for murder. So are Fedell Caffey and Jacqueline Williams. Prosecutors said Williams — a cousin of Ward — wanted the unborn child.

Sun-Times file photo