A pregnant woman lies on her bed with monitoring devices placed on her belly as she gets ready before delivering her child at the maternity ward of a hospital in Paris on June 29, 2022. (Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP) (Photo by CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP via Getty Images)
A couple reportedly kidnapped and killed an 8-month-pregnant woman before slicing her stomach open to steal her unborn child, Mexican officials said Monday.
The alleged attack took place on Nov. 30, according to several outlets. The pregnant woman, identified by federal authorities as 20-year-old Rosa Isela Castro Vazquez, ultimately died from her wounds.
But the infant was miraculously “rescued safe and sound and is now receiving attention from the relevant authorities,” the Veracruz attorney general’s office state in a statement.
The suspected assailants – a man and a woman – were only identified as Gonzalo and Veronica “N” by Mexican officials. The two face charges of kidnapping and femicide.
The two reportedly used social media to lure Vazquez to a pharmacy near her home with the promise of giving her some second-hand baby clothes, multiple local outlets report.
CCTV footage shows the pregnant woman meeting the suspects outside the pharmacy before being escorted into a vehicle. She was last seen alive on Wednesday.
Vazquez’ body was eventually found at a Los Arrieros ranch, according to the Attorney General’s online statement. The unborn child had been cut out of her womb.
“The State Attorney General’s Office…reports that officials of the Ministerial Police arrested Gonzalo ‘N’ and Veronica ‘N’ as alleged perpetrators of [the kidnapping]” the Attorney General of Veracruz said in its a statement posted on Facebook.
Gonzalo and Veronica were arrested with a “newborn minor with them,” the statement goes on to say. Veronica reportedly took the baby to a local hospital however she was not able to prove the child was her own, according to several outlets.
As of Wednesday, it was still not clear if the suspects had retained attorneys yet who can enter a plea or speak on their behalf on the matter.
The duo were brought before a Mexican judge on Monday.
They reportedly sliced open the victim to get her fetus because Veronica was unable to have children herself, an official linked to the investigation told Agence France-Presse.
Over 3,700 women were murdered in Mexico last year, with 1,000 being classified as femicides, per official figures.
Similar crimes have occurred in the United States, however they remain rare. But Just last month, Taylor Rene Parker, 21, was sentenced to death in Texas for killing Reagan Michelle Simmons-Hancock, also 21, along with Hancock’s infant daughter in the town of New Boston back in October 2020, the New York Post reported last month.
