Colombian woman arrested after ‘ripping baby from murdered woman’s womb’

Yulexis Valecillos was murdered on 8 September but her daughter survived

Colombian police are shown with the detained murder suspect Mariluz Mosquera. (Twitter/PoliciaColombia)

A 49-year-old woman has been arrested in Colombia over the murder of a pregnant friend, whose baby she allegedly then ripped out of her womb.

Mariluz Mosquera was detained on Tuesday after she was found in hiding, the Santiago de Cali Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

She was wanted in connection with the murder of the 28-year-old Venezuelan woman Yulexis Valecillos, who went missing in the Colombian town of Candeleria on 8 September last year.

Investigators allege that Mosquera lured Valecillos to her home by promising to give her clothes for her unborn daughter, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

It is thought that Mosquera wanted to steal the child because she had faked a pregnancy to receive financial support from her dead husband’s family.

Her accomplice, Luis Felipe Victoria Arenas, who has confessed to murder, is then thought to have stabbed the victim to death, before putting her body in bin bags and dumping it in a nearby lake.

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Valecillos’ remains were discovered last month, shortly before Arenas was detained.

Colombian newspaper Cali 24 reported that a woman - identified as Mosquera - appeared at a hospital on 9 September with a baby she claimed was hers.

However, doctors realised that she was lying because there were no signs she had been pregnant or had given birth.

After DNA testing proved he was her father, the baby was given to Valecillos’ husband Lizander Alberto Márquez in late October.

Mosquera evaded capture by not staying in the same location for more than five days, according to the local police. Like Arenas, she is charged with murder and kidnapping.