Updated at 6 p.m. ET: When police showed up to Estrella Carrera’s apartment outside Chicago on Sunday, they found her dead in a dry bathtub. She had been stabbed multiple times, and she was still wearing the dress she wore at her wedding reception.
Carrera hadn’t told many people that she was getting married, the Chicago Tribune reported, and the news seemed to surprise her neighbors as well, who had always seen her alone. She was a Spanish interpreter for a social welfare agency and apparently lived alone with her daughter and son, ages 9 and 2.
On Friday, though, Carrera married a 30-year-old man she’d been with, on and off, for three years, according to the Tribune. He was the father of her 2 year old. The Tribune newspaper has not named him because he has not been charged.
Read local coverage on NBCChicago.com
That night after the marriage, Carrera called family members, inviting them to join her on a party bus. When she called her cousin Sandy Lopez, she didn’t mention a wedding, perhaps because her cousin didn’t approve of the man Carrera was seeing.
"She didn't want to tell me she had gotten married," Sandy Lopez told the Tribune. "She didn't tell anybody."
"We are following several leads but have not named a suspect at this," Captain Joseph Ford of the Burbank Police Department told msnbc.com. "We will release more info tomorrow."
Carrera was supposed to pick up her children from her father’s house the next day, Saturday, but she never showed up. By 3:30 p.m. on Sunday, her family dispatched police for a well-being check.
"We never thought this would happen; she was a strong woman,” Jaime Lopez, a cousin, told the Tribune. “She loved her kids."
Jason Tokarczyk, a neighbor, told NBC Chicago that he hadn't noticed anything abnormal about Carrera. He described her as quiet.
"I seen her walking to her car, her and her son,” Tokarczyk said. “Hi and bye and that was it. I never ever seen her with a guy since I have been here, and I never seen her walking in and out with a guy at all."
Carrera’s death was ruled a homicide following an autopsy Monday. Police said in a statement Monday that they believe her slaying stems from "a domestic situation." The investigation is ongoing.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- California faces higher taxes to cut huge deficit
- Gov. Christie's pension issue: Double-dipping in New Jersey
- Edwards case: Dismissal denial anything but routine
- Video: Obama, Romney play up gay marriage split
- Four heading to Christian youth rally killed in plane crash