Father of slain pregnant teen Marlen Ochoa-Lopez blames 'these anti-immigrant laws' for delay in investigation
The father of a pregnant teenager found dead with her baby cut from her womb on Wednesday has voiced his frustrations with the investigation into her disappearance.
Arnulfo Ochoa, the father of 19-year-old Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, said during a Thursday press conference that while his family is thankful his daughter's remains have been positively identified, he cited "these anti-immigrant laws" as the reason police didn't "take action sooner and save a life."
Ochoa-Lopez migrated to the U.S. with her parents from Mexico when she was just 2 years old, WBBM reports.
She was first reported missing by her family after she failed to pick up her 3-year-old son from daycare on April 23. Her body was found more than three weeks later on May 14 behind a home in a suburb on Chicago's Southwest Side, after a frustrating and lengthy search effort.
Photos of the family:
Ochoa-Lopez was last seen leaving Latino Youth High School in the suburb of Pilsen on her way to a home in Scottsdale to pick up items from a 46-year-old woman she met through a now-shuttered Facebook group called "Help a Sister Out," who claimed to have a stroller and other baby items for the teen, her family says.
"She was giving clothes away, supposedly under the pretenses that her daughters had been given clothes and they had all these extra boy clothes," Cecelia Garcia, a spokeswoman for Ochoa-Lopez's family, said. "That's the false pretenses that we believe led her to that house."
Multiple neighbors told KGO-TV that around 6 p.m. on April 23, the last day Ochoa-Lopez was seen alive, a middle-aged female resident of the Scottsdale home in question was seen covered in blood holding a baby wrapped in a towel, screaming she just gave birth and that he wasn't breathing.
Emergency responders rushed the woman and baby boy, who was "pale and blue," to nearby Advocate Christ Hospital for treatment, where the infant still remains in "grave" condition.
An anonymous tip led police to conduct a DNA test on the hospitalized baby, which confirmed he belonged to Ochoa-Lopez and her husband, Yovany Lopez.
The family has decided to name the infant Yadiel — a name his slain mother had previously chosen — and say they are hoping for the best while preparing for the worst, as the child is said to be brain dead and on life support.
Lopez told reporters that his wife's killers "don't know the pain they've caused" and vowed to bring them to justice.
