Parents charged with murder of adopted child
The adoptive parents of three children were charged with first-degree murder on Wednesday, more than a year after firefighters found skeletal remains in the attic of their home.
The Phoenix Police Department announced the new charges in a written statement on Friday.
The parents, 57-year-old Rafael Loera and 51-year-old Maribel Loera, were arrested on Jan. 28, 2020, shortly after the remains were discovered.
Sgt. Mercedes Fortune, Phoenix police spokesperson, told The Arizona Republic that gathering evidence and witness testimony in the death of a girl who hadn’t been seen since 2016 played a role as to why it took so long to submit murder charges to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
“Having to go and really work backwards takes time,” Fortune said. “You’re diligent. You don’t want to miss any detail.”
Authorities first learned of the abuse when their 11-year-old daughter called the police to report she was home alone and scared on Jan. 20, 2020.
The girl was removed from the home, but no other children were there, police said at the time. The Arizona Department of Child Safety later removed a 9year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl not related to the other two children on Jan. 28, 2020.
Investigators discovered numerous signs of child abuse and arrested the parents, police said.
Both parents faced four counts of child abuse and one count of concealing a dead body. Rafael was also charged with arson of an occupied structure.
Police said in court documents that Rafael Loera told them he attempted to kill himself by burning down their west Phoenix home shortly after the kids were removed, though firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze before it engulfed the structure.
Rafael Loera told investigators that the bones belonged to Charisma Marquez, whose name was changed to Ana Loera, and that she had been dead since 2017.
Court documents show Rafael Loera told investigators Ana had fallen ill and that he waited several days before deciding to take her to Phoenix Children’s Hospital. But Ana began vomiting and convulsing in the car before ultimately dying.
Fearing he would lose custody of the other children if Ana’s death were discovered, Rafael Loera told investigators that he hid her body in the attic where it decomposed for years.
The Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s
Office ruled the death a homicide.
Priscilla Marquez, a woman claiming to be Ana’s biological mother, said the girl would have been 10 when she died.
In a phone interview on Friday, Marquez told The Republic she was relieved to hear the Loeras would face murder charges in the death of her daughter.
“I just sat wondering and wondering as it got closer to the court date, to trial, I was like ‘Are we really going to go to trial without murder charges?’ ” Marquez said. “But now that it’s right there in black and white, I’m relieved. They’re finally getting what’s coming to them.”
Marquez said she hopes the parents receive a life sentence so they can spend the rest of their lives reflecting on what they did to her children.
“I don’t want them to get the death penalty because the death penalty is the easy way out,” she said.
The Loeras were scheduled to go to trial on April 27, but that date was pushed back to Dec. 2 after the first-degree murder charges were filed, according to the Maricopa County Superior Court’s website.