A California grandmother has been sentenced to 180 days in jail for helping her daughter to hide the body of her murdered 3-year-old granddaughter.
Kimberley Lopez died in 2015, three days after her third birthday. In December 2018, her mother, Mayra Chavez, 27, was found guilty of her murder and torture.
Her grandmother, Maria De Jesus Lopez, 45, later admitted to helping Chavez take the body of the 3-year-old to Mexico, where Chavez tried to dispose of her remains with the help of her 34-year-old boyfriend—the girl’s father—Omar Misael Lopez.
The girl had been placed in foster care at 9 months old when she tested positive for methamphetamine and marijuana, according to authorities. She was returned to her mother’s care, but brought back into foster care when her mother started to abuse her.
Chavez was able to regain custody for a second time, but continued to abuse her daughter, according to authorities.
“In December, a jury convicted her mother, Mayra Chavez, of second-degree murder as well as felony assault on a child causing death and torture,” a district attorney’s statement said.
“Upon learning of Kimberly’s death, Ms. Lopez assisted Chavez and Omar Lopez in covering up Kimberly’s death by lending the couple her car and providing them with money so they could dispose of Kimberly’s remains in Tijuana, Mexico. Kimberly’s body was never recovered. Over the next 15 months, Lopez also assisted Chavez and Omar Lopez in concealing Kimberly’s death from authorities.”
In a further attempt to cover their tracks, the parents later went back to to dig up their daughter’s body and destroy her remains, which have not been found.
He has yet to be sentenced, but according to the district attorney he is expected to be sentenced to 14 years.
