Killer dubbed 'Womb Raider' jailed for 50 years after murdering pregnant teenager and cutting out her baby
17 April 2024, 10:59
A killed dubbed a 'Womb Raider' has been jailed for 50 years after brutally murdering a pregnant teenager and cutting her baby from her abdomen.
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Clarisa Figueroa was helped by her daughter, Desiree, to lure Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, 19, to their home with the promise of free baby clothes.
Figueroa's daughter distracted Marlen by telling her about her dead brother. Figueroa then strangled Marlen with an electrical cord before slicing open her womb and taking her baby.
Desiree pleaded guilty to murder in January and has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
In a harrowing victim statement, Marlen's mother, Raquel Uriostegui, said in a statement: "The loss of my daughter's life is something I will never overcome."
Figueroa stole Marlen's baby and then tried to pass the child off as her own after calling 911 and having the baby rushed to hospital.
Marlen's baby died two months later.
It was later revealed that Figueroa had lost a child herself and had told her family before the murder that she had fallen pregnant again - despite having her fallopian tubes tied years earlier.
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Months before the pair murdered Marlen, Figueroa told her daughter that she needed help "killing a pregnant lady and taking her baby".
They targeted Marlen after she posted on Facebook that was looking for free baby clothes and strollers, saying she could not afford to buy them.
Figueroa then invited Marlen over, though they did not kill her on that day because her boyfriend, who was also there, 'refused to help them'.
After they killed Marlen and took her baby, Clarisa went to hospital with her baby.
Hospital staff realised she showed 'no signs consistent with a woman who had given birth', though she was not arrested for several weeks.
Instead, Marlen's baby spent weeks in the ICU and Figueroa and her boyfriend Piotr Bobak staged images, pretending the child was theirs.
Figueroa's boyfriend, Piotr Bobak, 40, also tried to help them cover up the murder by cleaning blood from the house.
Bobab was released on parole in 2023 after pleading guilty to covering up the crime.
