CHICAGO, IL – A plea agreement has been reached with Desiree Figueroa, a 29-year-old Chicago woman who confessed to helping her mother murder a pregnant teenager and extract her baby. Figueroa pleaded guilty to a first-degree murder charge on Monday as part of a deal that will see her testify against her mother, Clarisa Figueroa, in exchange for a 30-year prison sentence.
The senior Figueroa will stand trial later this month for the horrific killing of 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez in 2019. Ochoa-Lopez was lured to the Figueroas’ home, reportedly under the guise of receiving free baby clothes, when she was nine months pregnant.
Prosecutors argue that while Desiree distracted Ochoa-Lopez with a photo album, Clarisa throttled her with a cable. Desiree confessed to aiding her mother in the gruesome act, peeling Ochoa-Lopez’s fingers off the strangulation device, and handing her mother a butcher’s knife to dissect the unborn child from the victim’s womb.
The mother and daughter allegedly concealed Ochoa-Lopez’s mutilated body in plastic and disposed of it in a trash can outside their home. Later, in a grim deception, Clarisa contacted 911, claiming she had given birth and the child was not breathing. Subsequently, she presented the newborn boy as her own in the hospital.
Unfortunately, due to severe brain damage, the baby boy passed away around two months later. Suspicion had arisen during the investigation into Ochoa-Lopez’s disappearance, given her known contact with the Figueroas. Upon locating Ochoa-Lopez’s car parked near the Figueroas’ residence, the authorities uncovered the victim’s decomposing body in the trash can.
DNA testing confirmed that the baby whom Clarisa claimed as her own was not biologically related. The child was later named Yovani Lopez by his biological father.
Authorities allege that Clarisa had spun a web of lies, claiming she was pregnant to her family soon after her adult son’s natural death. She supposedly devised a plan for months to acquire a newborn, even publicizing an ultrasound image and nursery photos on her Facebook page.
Clarisa’s boyfriend, Piotr Bobak, was sentenced to four years in prison for obstruction of justice, following his guilty plea last year for helping clean up the crime scene. Seemingly, he had been fooled into believing he was the newborn’s father.