3 days ago
Woman 'killed children and hid bodies in suitcase before mum spotted awful sign'
Corena Minjarez, 37, is accused of the 2018 killing of 5-year-old Jesus Dominguez Jr, and 3-year-old Yesenia Dominguez, and hiding their bodies for more than half a decade
A woman allegedly murdered two young children and then hid their bodies in "hardened concrete" and a car boot for nearly a decade, a court heard.
Corena Minjarez, 37, is accused of the 2018 killing of 5-year-old Jesus Dominguez Jr and 3-year-old Yesenia Dominguez, according to court documents. The Colorado suspect is on trial this week for allegedly killing the two children, with help from their dad, and hiding one of their bodies in a container filled with concrete.
Minjarez and Jesus Dominguez, the children's dad, allegedly killed the children and stuffed their bodies inside a storage facility and a suitcase in the boot of Minjarez's car.
According to court documents, Dominguez accepted a plea deal in which he agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for testifying against Minjarez, whom he allegedly had a complicated relationship with. Dominguez will be sentenced on September 12. It comes as a British man was charged after 'trying to drown his daughter-in-law on dream family holiday.'
Jesus Jr. and Yesenia were Dominguez's children with another woman, according to police. The siblings were last seen in 2018 before their remains were discovered.
The first body was found on January 20, 2024, when Minijarez's mum called police to say there was a suspicious bag of rubbish full of concrete in the flat.
She told officers she had a 'bad feeling' as she had not seen the children since June 2018. The rubbish, which had a concrete top, was opened up and had the decomposed remains of Yesenia wrapped in layers of bags.
Minjarez's mum also told police in the summer of 2018 she noticed a "foul smell" in her daughter's car and jokingly asked if someone had died.
Minjarez was unhappy with the comment and allegedly responded defensively and asked her mother why she would ask. This led cops to find the remains of Jesus Jr in a suitcase in the car boot of the suspect's vehicle, which was found dumped at a scrapyard in February 2024.
"During the investigation detectives located a vehicle belonging to a Corena Minjarez at a local scrap yard," police said. "On February 6th, 2024, Police executed a search warrant on that vehicle. Police located a suitcase in the trunk of the vehicle. In the suitcase were the remains of a young male child."
An autopsy report determined the manner of death for both children was "homicidal violence." A police investigation found there was no missing person reports ever filed for the children.
Minjarez, 37, faces two counts of first-degree murder of a victim under 12 years old by a person in a position of trust, and two counts of abuse of a corpse in the deaths of 5-year-old Jesus Dominguez Jr. and 3-year-old Yesenia Dominguez.
The trial is due to run through until August 29.
