Colombian authorities arrest woman who 'ripped a baby out of a Venezuelan pregnant woman's womb'

A woman who was wanted for orchestrating the gruesome assassination of a pregnant Venezuelan migrant and ripping out a baby girl from her womb last year has been arrested in Colombia.

The Santiago de Cali Metropolitan Police announced that Mariluz Mosquera, 49, was apprehended Tuesday during a raid of a home where she had been hiding since November.

Agents tied Mosquera to the crime after locating jewelry that had belonged to Yulexis Valecillos.

Mosquera lured Valecillos, 28, to her tragic death on September 8, 2020, with the promise that she would gift the married mother-of-two free clothes for the child that she was expecting, according to Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office. The pair had been acquainted, police said.

Police said Mosquera had faked her own pregnancy and wanted the baby to receive financial support. 

Valencillos’ remains were found February 15, three days before Mosquera’s alleged accomplice Luis Victoria, 21, was arrested.

Mariluz Mosquera  (center) was arrested Tuesday in Cali, Colombia, in connection to the murder and kidnapping of Yulexis Valecillos on September 8, 2020. Mosquera allegedly lured Valecillos, a native of Venezuela, by promising to gift her clothes to the baby girl she was expecting to deliver between September 19 and 21. Valecillos went to Mosquera’s home and was stabbed dead by Luis Victoria. The pair then took the baby girl from Valecillos’ womb and dismembered the victim before the body was dumped in a lake and found in February

Yulexis Valecillos was expecting her third child, a girl, before she was tragically killed in Cali, Colombia, on September 8, 2020. Her alleged killers are in custody

Valecillos, who was scheduled to go into labor on September 17 or 18, went to Mosquera’s home in the Cali city of Candelaria and upon entering was attacked with a sharp weapon by Victoria, police said.

Victoria and Mosquera then cut Valecillos open and extracted the baby.

Victoria told authorities that he hid Valecillos’ dismembered body inside plastic bags before dumping it at a lake.

He also said that Mosquera had faked her own pregnancy as a method to continue to receive financial support from her late husband’s family. 

Luis Victoria (second from left) was arrested February 18, 2021  in Colombia and confessed to authorities that he had attacked the pregnant Venezuelan mother-of-two before he hid the dismembered body in bags and dumped it at a lake. He also said that Mariluz Mosquera orchestrated the killing because she had been faking her own pregnancy and wanted to continue to receive financial support from her late husband’s family

Mariluz Mosquera is accompanied by authorities in Cali, Colombia, following her arrest Tuesday

On September 9, 2020, Mosquera showed up at a local hospital seeking attention and told the medical staff that she had given birth to the girl at her home.

However, the doctors discovered she was lying after medical exams showed that she was never pregnant and didn’t show signs of having gone into labor.

Mosquera was placed under arrest but was later released as authorities discovered the origins of the child.

Valecillos’ widower, Lizander Marquéz, was reunited with his daughter, Charlotte Marquéz, on October 22, 2020 after a DNA test confirmed that he was her father.

Victoria and Mosquera have both been charged with kidnapping and murder.