A missing pregnant teenager has been found murdered, with her unborn baby brutally ripped from the womb.
Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, 19, from Chicago in the US disappeared after arranging to pick up baby clothes from a person she met in a Facebook group.
Facebook
Her body was found after paramedics responded to a call about a distressed baby, finding Ochoa-Lopez dead at the scene, according to NBC News.
Ochoa-Lopez was found to have been killed by strangulation and her baby - later positively identified as her biological child - was miraculously found alive.
The teenager was nine-months pregnant at the time of her disappearance.
'We believe that she was murdered, and we believe that the baby was forcibly removed following that murder,' said Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
Guglielmi also said the infant was in a 'grave condition'.
Family spokeswoman Cecilia Garcia told reporters the same day Ochoa-Lopez went missing, someone dialled 911 to report a 46-year-old woman had given birth.
A woman living at the house reportedly told a neighbour the baby 'wasn't breathing' and it was taken to hospital by ambulance.
DNA tests later confirmed the baby was Ochoa-Lopez's.
Media reports allege Ochoa-Lopez was lured to a basement and her body was found dumped in a garbage can.
Two women and two men were taken into custody however no charges have been laid.
