Her unborn baby was cut out from her body by a mother and daughter who allegedly wanted the child for themselves. The baby boy, Jadiel, survived only for a few months before passing away as well.
"We are here in remembrance of a great wife, and we are here in remembrance of a great mother," said Pastor Julie Contreras with United Giving Hope.
Gathered at the site of a large mural in Pilsen painted in their honor, Ochoa-Lopez's family and friends prayed for the mother and son, but also called for justice to be served. While Clarisa and Desiree Figueroa were arrested and charged with the murders, a trial date has not yet been set.
"I think part of the delay was COVID, because this happened right before COVID-19. Part of the delay is they're trying to suppress the confessions. And, they're also trying to claim that they're not fit for trial," said Frank Avila, the family's attorney.
Adding insult to injury, Clarisa Figueroa's boyfriend, Piotr Bobak, who had been charged with concealing the murder, pleaded guilty to obstructing justice earlier this year.
A judge imposed a four-year sentence, which, with time served, saw him released on parole, according to Illinois Department of Corrections records and the family's attorney. Advocates on Sunday said he got off too easily.
"When he cleaned up the blood of Marlen, when he wrapped her body inside of a carpet and threw it in a garbage can, and when he heinously and horrifically held the infant child Jadiel, and claimed his as his own," said Julie Contreras.
But even if the women are eventually convicted, for Ochoa-Lopez's husband, Yovanny Lopez, and her now 7-year-old son Joshua, life will never be the same.
"He asks me where his mother is and if I'm his mother now," Juana Colunga, the victim's mother-in law, speaking in Spanish. "We can't explain it to him. He's still a child. We just tell him she's looking over him from heaven."
While he did not speak on camera on Sunday, when ABC7 asked Marlen's husband how he is doing, he simply said that he has good days and he has bad days.
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