Posted on 08/20/2005 6:20:49 AM PDT by aculeus
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Police said they believe remains recovered outside Philadelphia are those of a pregnant woman missing for a month, and a person was in custody in the case.
Inspector William Colarulo said Saturday that he could not confirm that the remains were those of 24-year-old LaToyia Figueroa, but investigators believed that to be the case.
"We have strong reason to believe that it is her," Colarulo said.
Colarulo said the person in custody had not been arrested or charged. He said he could not comment on whether the person had any connection to the property where the remains were recovered.
Police scheduled a Saturday news conference in Philadelphia on the case.
The remains were recovered in a grassy, partially wooded lot near homes and a road in Chester, about 13 miles southwest of Philadelphia. The area was cordoned off by yellow police tape Saturday morning.
A few dozen members of the Figueroa family and supporters arrived at the scene shortly after daybreak, clustering close to the police tape and embracing each other.
"Our hearts our broken ... we just want to spend some time here and take a look at this place where LaToyia unfairly was murdered," said a cousin of Figueroa, Philadelphia City Councilman Juan Ramos.
One woman in the group collapsed in her grief as a vehicle from the Medical Examiner's Office, presumably carrying the body, drove away.
Figueroa, who was five months' pregnant when she disappeared and already the mother of a young girl, was last seen on the afternoon of July 18 in West Philadelphia. Police received a missing persons report July 21, McClane said.
Authorities said they had questioned family members, neighbors and the father of Figueroa's unborn child, among others, but had not identified anyone as a suspect and said they were treating the disappearance as a missing person's case.
Relatives and friends, who have papered the city with flyers and held large-scale searches for any sign of Figueroa, had just marked the one-month anniversary of her disappearance. A reward fund for information had reached $100,000.
AP-ES-08-20-05 0833EDT
ping
tragic and very sad, indeed; prayers for LaToyia Figueroa's little girl, who is now motherless, and also for the family.
Has Fox gone to 24 hour coverage yet?
Or is there not a cute photo of an attractive middle class white woman to go with this story?
Owl_Eagle
(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,
Good grief, they caught him moving her body!!!!
No mercy for the bastard who did this.
I missed it. I really rarely read the city papers.
Good grief! It took them over a month to find her? It doesn't take a rocket scientest to look at ex-lovers in these circumstances.
What a statement!
Are you saying that Ms Figueroa was unattractive?!!! Here she lies murdered and all that can be dredged up is a comment on her appearance.
I never thought her unattractive at all. The pictures always seemed well-groomed, clean, etc. What an absolutely insensitive comment.
I wasn't commenting on her appearance at all.
I was slamming the media and their biases.
What is that they say, the criminal always returns to the scene of the crime. Well good. At the least this family now know what has happened to their love one and have her body. May this young woman rest in peace and may God bring comfort to her family and love ones.
http://www.pennlive.com/newsflash/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-29/1124545490211830.xml&storylist=penn
Former boyfriend accused of LaToyia Figueroa's death
8/20/2005, 11:32 a.m. ET
By DAN ROBRISH
The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A former boyfriend of LaToyia Figueroa, a pregnant woman whose month-long disappearance attracted national attention, will be charged with her death, authorities said Saturday.
Stephen Poaches, 25 of West Philadelphia, the father of her unborn baby, was to be charged with two counts of murder and related offenses for the deaths of the 24-year-old woman and her fetus, District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham said Saturday. Abraham said the charges were still being prepared and she did not know exactly what the other charges would be.
(snip)
When Poaches was arrested in Chester, about 13 miles southwest of Philadelphia, police said he was wearing a bulletproof vest and was carrying a pistol.
(snip)
Well, it was only 79 degrees yesterday.
..Wth??? ...stupid/brainless writers these days.
Yeah. Unreal huh?
LE had him under sureveillance since she was reported missing.
I saw the presser early this morning on msnbc.
A sane justice system would fry him today.
It's actually worse, since it means two victims instead of just one (or three instead of two, since she was pregnant).
One of the reports I heard on Fox said that he had TWO pregnant girlfriends.
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