Marlen Ochoa-Lopez update: Artist unites murdered pregnant teen mom, baby on Pilsen memorial mural

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Friday, June 21, 2019
Artist unites murdered pregnant teen mom and baby on Pilsen memorial mural
The murder of Marlen Ochoa-Lopez has affected people all over the city, including an artist who turned his shock and horror, into a thing of beauty.

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A local artist is helping the Pilsen community honor and remember the pregnant teen mom who was killed and her newborn baby who was taken from her.

WATCH: Artist adds baby Yovanny to memorial mural for Marlen Ochoa-Lopez

Artist Milton Coronado, who created a beautiful mural of Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, is reuniting mother and child in his memorial.

It was exactly one week ago Yovanny, the baby boy of Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, passed away after spending his short life in the hospital.

Now the artist Milton Coronado, who created a beautiful mural of Marlen, is getting ready to reunite mother and child in his memorial.

RELATED: Murdered Pilsen woman's family arrives in Chicago, expected to visit baby in hospital

Coronado created the original mural near 16th Street and Newberry Avenue in Pilsen last month. In an interview with ABC7, Coronado said he, "wanted to give the family a gift, a memorial, of their daughter as well as to the city.

Coronado said his father was gunned down in 2001 and he created a mural after his murder.

"I painted a mural to help me cope with that loss and it served me as therapy for it and it really helped me," Coronado said. "I wanted to give back to the city something similar."

WATCH: Husband speaks about Marlen Ochoa-Lopez's death

"It's so hurtful, so hurtful to see the person, your wife, who you lived with for four years and now you see her with her eyes closed," he said.

When people see the mural, Coronado said he wants them, "to understand that even in the midst of this evil and the midst of this horror, we can still find hope. I want them to also be connected to her, to her family even though they didn't know her or know the family."

RELATED: 3 charged in murder of pregnant Chicago woman denied bond

Ochoa-Lopez was last seen in Pilsen on April 23. She was nine months pregnant and due in early May. Three weeks later, her remains were found near a home on the city's Southwest Side. Police say she was murdered on the day she disappeared, and her baby was taken from her womb after her death.

Three people have been charged in her death.

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