California mom jailed for torturing 3-year-old to death before dissolving remains in bleach and pouring it in sink
OXNARD, CALIFORNIA: A California mother who had been jailed for torturing and murdering her young daughter and then dissolving her body in bleach has seen an appellate court uphold her 2019 conviction.
Mayra Alejandra Chavez, 28, first came to the attention of the authorities in February 2016 when Ventura County Children and Family Services received a call requesting a welfare check on her older daughter. When they questioned the girl, she told them that she did have a sister, which raised questions since they were aware Chavez had a three-year-old girl named Kimberly Lopez.
Chavez and Kimberly's father, Omar Lopez, told them the girl was not aware of her sister because she was living with relatives in Mexico, an explanation they repeated to social workers a few months later but could not provide the documentation backing up the claim.
Social workers officially reported Kimberly missing to the Oxnard Police in September 2016, according to the Los Angeles Times, resulting in authorities offering a $10,000 reward for information to find the three-year-old. They searched for the young girl for months before Chavez confessed she had died.
As investigators looked into the case, they uncovered some horrific details. On the June 2015 night she was killed, Chavez had become angry when Kimberly soiled her diaper. She aggressively pulled down the three-year-old's pants and yanked her legs out from under, sending her toppling on the floor, where she struck her head and started seizing. In an interview with detectives, Lopez likened the sound to "a watermelon hitting the ground."
She died after they failed to seek medical attention, following which the couple drove her body to Mexico and buried it in a blue plastic bag in a shallow grave. They then returned to Oxnard, but afraid that the body would be found, drove back to her grave and exhumed her remains. They broke apart her bones with pliers and tried to dissolve her remains in a bucket with bleach and water, which they later poured down a sink in a house they were renting,
Investigators also learned that Chavez had lost custody of Kimberly at birth after the baby tested positive for both methamphetamine and marijuana. The child had been placed in foster care for around nine months before she was returned to the mother after she completed drug and parenting classes.
Kimberly was returned to foster care again after Chavez started abusing the girl but was allowed to be seen by her mother during supervised visits. It was during these visits that the abuse became more severe, investigators said. The 28-year-old's punishments for Kimberly reportedly included cold showers in which a beanie was pulled over the child’s face and water was dumped on her head, beatings that left bruises all over her body, slaps for not eating her food quickly enough, and more.
In December 2018, Chavez was convicted of felony torture and assault and sentenced to 37 years to life in prison. Lopez, who struck a deal with prosecutors in exchange for testifying against Chavez, pleaded guilty to child endangerment and perjury and was sentenced to 14 years behind bars.
In May 2019, lawyers for Chavez appealed her sentence on the basis of numerous technicalities but saw their petition turned down by the 2nd District Court of Appeal, which upheld her convictions.
