A young Dominican Republic man and his mother were arrested recently after he allegedly killed his girlfriend and hid her body after a botched late-term abortion.
Authorities said they found 16-year-old Emely Peguero’s body in a suitcase on the side of the road Friday with remains of her aborted baby still inside her womb, according to People.
The Dominican Republic Attorney General’s Office reported the young woman suffered a punctured uterus and a blunt blow to the head, both of which contributed to her death. She was five-months pregnant.
Abortion is illegal in the Central American country, and authorities said they found the abortionist who allegedly botched her abortion and killed her unborn baby. The attorney general’s office said the names of the abortionist and others involved in the case will be released publicly when the court receives them.
Her boyfriend, Marlon Martinez, 19, and his mother Marlyn (also spelled Marlin in reports) Martinez have been arrested after they allegedly hid her body and refused to cooperate with authorities. Marlon later confessed to killing Emely and then dumping her body, according to Univision. His mother faces charges of concealing evidence from authorities.
Here’s more from People:
Marlon Martinez, the boyfriend of the 16-year-old and a U.S citizen, and his mother Marlyn Martinez have since been detained after he allegedly revealed that he dumped her body in a landfill in panic following her death from an abortion—which is illegal in the Dominican Republic.
The authorities searched the landfill and were unable to find her body. Marlyn Martinez allegedly offered the prosecution her knowledge of where the dead body could be found. Authorities reportedly denied her offer, which led to her arrest. An unnamed third person was also taken into custody for allegedly helping in transferring the body.
Emely’s mother Adalgisa Polanco pleaded for help publicly when her daughter disappeared near the end of August. Since then, the case has received national and international attention.
Univision reports Polanco said she suspected that the Martinezes took her daughter for an abortion and knew where she was before police found her body Friday.
According to the report, police found bloody towels and a mattress in the Martinez family’s apartment after Emely’s disappearance.
Tragically, abortion often is coupled with violence against women as well as their unborn babies.
Last year, a Maui man was found guilty of murdering his pregnant ex-girlfriend after he allegedly pressured her to have an abortion. And in May, a California man was convicted of murder after he allegedly hired a hitman who killed his pregnant girlfriend and their unborn son after she refused to have an abortion.
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In 2016, LifeNews reported another gruesome case involving a North Carolina woman who allegedly was murdered by her boyfriend after refusing to abort their child.
And earlier that year, a Brooklyn, New York man was sentenced to 32 years in prison for a similar case. A jury found Torey Branch, 35, guilty of abortion, burglary and assault for beating his pregnant girlfriend and causing the death of their unborn child.
As LifeNews previously reported, one study found that as many as 64 percent of post-abortive women say they felt pressure to have an abortion.
Elliot Institute Director David Reardon, who co-authored the Medical Science Monitor study, said, “In many of the cases documented for our ‘Forced Abortion in America’ report, police and witnesses reported that acts of violence and murder took place after the woman refused to abort or because the attacker didn’t want the pregnancy.”
“Even if a woman isn’t physically threatened, she often faces intense pressure, abandonment, lack of support, or emotional blackmail if she doesn’t abort. While abortion is often described as a ‘choice,’ women who’ve been there tell a very different story,” Reardon said.
