Baby Of Missing Pregnant Woman Found Alive
Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, a 19-year-old Chicago woman, went missing on April 23. She was pregnant and in the process of gathering some things together for her unborn child. She had gone to meet someone she’d been communicating with through a Facebook group to pick up some baby clothes. Unfortunately, she never returned from this venture. Law enforcement has now released to the public that Ochoa-Lopez’s body has been found and that she was murdered. In a surprising turn of events, her baby survived the ordeal, according to NBC News.
The Cook County medical examiner’s office was able to confirm that an infant, a little boy, had been found not far from where Ochoa-Lopez lay dead of apparent strangulation. The baby was provided with medical attention by paramedics on the scene. He has been named Yadiel, the name his mother picked out for him prior to her death. Police have stated that Ochoa-Lopez was nine months pregnant and very near to giving birth when she went missing on April 23. She was last seen alive at the Latino Youth High School in Chicago where she had been taking classes.
BREAKING: The remains found outside a home on the Southwest Side of Chicago have been identified as the missing 19-year-old pregnant woman, Marlen Ochoa-Uriostegui: https://t.co/GqSIY1oVNF pic.twitter.com/ksh7RqFYsG
— FOX 32 News (@fox32news) May 15, 2019
Ochoa-Lopez was also the mother of another son, a 3-year-old boy. As she prepared to welcome a second child she had turned to the internet for some financial assistance. She created a Facebook group “Help A Sista Out,” through which she requested that online connections donate clothing and other baby items they no longer had a use for. Police believe that it was through this page that she connected with the individual she met with shortly prior to her disappearance, according to ABC News.
Cecilia Garcia, a spokesperson for Ochoa-Lopez’s family explained why the teenager agreed to meet with the stranger.
“She was giving clothes away, supposedly under the pretenses that her daughters had been given clothes and they had all these extra boy clothes, and that’s where the false pretenses that I believe led her to that house.”
When neighbors in the area called law enforcement about the baby, they were informed that he was black and blue and wasn’t breathing. While the infant was transported to Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, he remains in serious condition.
Garcia emphasized that while things don’t look optimistic for baby Yadiel, the family refuses to give up faith.
“Our faith moves us. We are hopeful, but we are prepared for the worst. We just ask the public to please keep us in their prayers, especially the family.”
