A baby boy who was ripped from his mother's womb in what Chicago authorities suspect to be a fetal abduction case is still hospitalized and in critical condition, according to the family.
The family of Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, who police say was strangled and then had her baby cut from her womb, on Monday released photos of the baby with his father, Yiovanni Lopez. Baby Yadiel is still in critical condition and is reliant on a breathing machine, a family spokeswoman told NBC News.
Clarisa Figueroa, 46, and her daughter Desiree, 24, were charged last week with strangling Ochoa-Lopez, who was nine months pregnant at the time, and then allegedly cutting the baby out of her dead body. Police say Ochoa-Lopez went missing in late April after she arranged to meet with Clarisa Figueroa, whom she met on Facebook, to pick up baby items.
Authorities suspect that Clarisa Figueroa intended on raising Ochoa-Lopez's baby as her own after her 20-year-old son died of natural causes.
The mother and daughter were denied bond during a court appearance Friday. Clarisa Figueroa's 40-year-old boyfriend, Piotr Bobak, who was charged with concealing the murder, was also denied bond.
Ochoa-Lopez's family said they've braced themselves for the possibility of the baby also dying, but are still holding out hope.
"We plead to God that he gives us our child because that is a blessing that my wife left for us," Yiovanni Lopez told reporters last Wednesday, through a Spanish interpreter, outside the county morgue where his wife's body was taken.
A funeral for Ochoa-Lopez is planned for Saturday in the Chicago suburb of Stickney, according to the Mount Auburn Funeral Home.