After killing her partner with a chainsaw, the Alabama woman is accused of dismembering his body and packing the body parts into ten to fifteen garbage bags.
According to police, Joselina Elizabeth Lopez, 26, packed Benito Morales Guzman’s body into trash bags and put it in the back and trunk of her Toyota Corolla.
According to a probable cause arrest affidavit acquired by Law&Crime, she also placed in the car electric chain saws she purchased from Lowe’s, one of which still had human flesh on the blades. She also included cleaning supplies, a diaper bag and a baby formula box that still had blood on it. Police said she intended to leave the nation with her child and head to Guatemala or Mexico, where she has family. Lopez allegedly carried the child’s birth certificate and her passport.
However, Guzman’s supervisor reported the 41-year-old missing to the Geneva County Sheriff’s Office on August 27, foiling her purported plot. During a welfare check at Guzman’s residence in the Fadette neighbourhood, deputies discovered what they describe as a “strong odour of decomposition believed emanating” from the Corolla parked outside. According to the affidavit, they also found the garbage bags in the car and a.22-caliber handgun with five of the six cartridges shot. Two bullets were found in Guzman’s body during an autopsy.
On August 24, at about 8 p.m., Guzman was last seen. Authorities think the kid was there at the house when the murder was committed. Lopez reportedly purchased four electric chain saws from Lowe’s and returned one, according to what the detectives allegedly found.
Lopez was taken to the Geneva County Jail without bond after deputies arrested her for homicide. She allegedly said, “I should have left earlier,” on the phone with a relative while she was incarcerated.
If found guilty, Lopez may spend the rest of his life behind bars.
The ABC affiliate WDHN in Dothan reports that Lopez testified before a judge that she killed Guzman in self-defence. Before her trial, she apparently requested and was refused release on bond.
Jennifer Wilkerson, Guzman’s ex-wife, remained in contact with him and thought of him as a friend.
“To hear all of that what she did to him like that — it sickens me to my stomach,” she said. “He didn’t deserve any of that. I mean, she already shot him five times. What else did she plan on doing here?”
Lopez’s hearing in court is set for September 11.
