Heartbreaking photos reveal father's cuddles with baby cut from mother's womb
The baby gorily cut from his mother’s womb in a twisted baby stealing plot has featured in heartwarming photos with his grieving father.
Photos of the intubated infant, named Yadiel, showed him being nursed by his adoring father Yovavi Lopez in hospital almost a month from the day of his forced birth.
The tiny baby featured a full head of dark hair and appeared to open his eyes slightly in one photo taken inside a hospital room.
A naming card revealed the child’s name, Yovanny Jardiel, which was believed to have been miswritten and since changed to Yadiel.
Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, 19, was nine months pregnant when she was lured to the Chicago home where Clarisa Figueroa, 46, and her daughter, Desiree, lived.
Figueroa plotted for months to acquire a newborn before she and her daughter strangled Ms Ochoa-Lopez and cut her baby from her womb.
The child was rushed to hospital in a critical condition, with Figueroa establishing a GoFundMe page to raise funds for the baby as part of her elaborate plan.
Young mum ‘strangled’ before baby was cut out
When Ms Ochoa-Lopez arrived at Figueroa’s house on April 23, Desiree showed her a photo album of her late brother to distract her as her mother started strangling her with a cord, prosecutor Jim Murphy said.
The daughter then pried Ms Ochoa-Lopez's fingers from the cord "one by one" while her mother continued to strangle the teen for another five minutes, Murphy said.
Once Ochoa-Lopez showed no signs of life, Figueroa cut her open with a butcher's knife, removed the placenta and the baby, then put the baby in a bucket with the umbilical cord still attached, Mr Murphy said, reading from court documents.
According to her family, Ms Ochoa-Lopez had planned to meet with a woman she had been messaging on Facebook who offered to give her a stroller and other baby goods.
ABC 7 reported that on the same day multiple residents near where Ms Ochoa-Lopez’s body was discovered claimed they saw an older woman distressed, holding a newborn baby wrapped in a towel and screaming that she had just given birth to a baby that wasn’t breathing.
Chicago fire officials confirmed firefighters responded to an address for a baby in distress, the baby was rushed to a nearby hospital and remains in critical condition.
A family spokesperson said a DNA test confirmed the baby was the child of Ms Ochoa-Lopez.
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