A Colorado couple, Corena Minjarez and Jesus Dominguez, both 37, allegedly killed the latter’s children, aged 5 and 3, and went on to live with their bodies for years.
Videos by Suggest
According to a February 2024 release issued by the Pueblo Police Department, police made the horrifying discovery back in January 2024. PPD officers responded to a West 6th Street storage unit after a report of suspicious activity.
Upon arrival, police found a metal container filled with hardened concrete. Two days later, the PPD determined that the remains of a young female, later identified as 3-year-old Yesenia Dominguez, were inside the container.
Two persons of interest were identified: Corena Minjarez and Jesus Dominguez, the latter being Yesenia’s father. Interviews conducted by police led nowhere, but police would make a harrowing discovery shortly after.
On February 6, 2024, police executed a search warrant on a vehicle found at a local scrap yard. The vehicle belonged to Minjarez. In the vehicle’s trunk, they found a suitcase stuffed with the remains of a male child. The remains were later identified as 5-year-old Jesus Dominguez Jr.
Minjarez and Dominguez were arrested shortly after. They were charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of abuse of a corpse.
Guilty Plea, Testifying Against Minjarez
More than a year later, however, on July 10, Jesus Dominguez pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in connection with his children’s deaths. As reported by The Pueblo Chieftain, he agreed to testify against Minjarez.
In court, Dominguez described the children’s deaths and the abuse they were subjected to. He alleged that, back on March 14, 2018, Yesenia soiled herself while on the way to school. The 3-year-old was forced to sit inside a trash bag on the floor, a practice Dominguez alleged Minjarez had done in the past.
At one point, the girl stopped breathing, but the couple didn’t bring her to a hospital, Dominguez testified. According to him, it was because the child abuse marks allegedly left by Minjarez would be noticeable. Yesenia succumbed to her injuries, and she was placed inside a suitcase and in the vehicle’s trunk when the couple was evicted, prosecutors alleged.
Unbearable Smell
Weeks later, the couple began noticing an increasingly unbearable smell coming from Yesenia’s remains, Dominguez said. As they usually did, they allegedly consumed drugs in the vehicle, including methamphetamine, all while 5-year-old Jesus was inside.
In April 2018, Jesus Jr. stopped breathing. Again, instead of rushing him to a hospital, the couple placed the boy in a suitcase, wrapped in trash bag layers, Dominguez testified.
Prosecutors alleged that Yesenia’s remains were transferred from the vehicle’s trunk to the metal container at the storage unit. Meanwhile, Jesus Jr.’s remains, still in a suitcase, were left in their vehicle’s trunk. The car was eventually taken to the scrapyard, where it was ultimately found.
The couple lived in the storage unit until they were evicted, the Chieftain reported.
Jesus Dominguez will be sentenced on September 12. Corena Minjarez’s trial continues.