An illegal immigrant who crossed the border into the United States illegally just two weeks ago, isaccused of stabbing his wife to death and nearly decapitating her – in front of their two children.
Baltazar Perez-Estrada, 32, of the 600 block of Gundersen Drive, was arrested on Monday, April 1, after he walked into the Carol Stream Police Department and turned himself in, according to DuPage County Circuit Court records.
Perez-Estrada faces five counts of first-degree murder. DuPage County Judge Joshua Dieden ruled Thursday morning that Perez-Estrada should be detained pretrial. According to the charges, he stabbed his wife Maricela Simon-Franco, 26, around 10 p.m. Sunday in their home.
Perez-Estrada Stabbed Wife After Finding Out She Had a Boyfriend
According to a petition for pretrial detention obtained by Daily Herald, a man came to police Monday morning saying his brother had told him about a stabbing. He had been asked by his brother to pick up a man and his two daughters at the Glenside Library in Glendale Heights. They were wet, cold and covered in mud, so he took them to buy clothes and then to his brother's house to shower.
Perez-Estrada told the brother about the stabbing, and the brother told the man, according to the petition. A little while later, Perez-Estrada entered the station and told a social services worker that he had learned his wife had a boyfriend, they argued, and he stabbed her, according to the petition.
Couple Had Been Married for Nearly a Decade, Simon-Franco was Planning to Leave Perez-Estrada
The petition states that the defendant's daughter was in a bedroom with her younger sister, heard her parents arguing, and saw her father "hitting" her mother with the knife. The girl told police her father then threw the knife in a nearby pond.
The couple had been married for about nine years. The victim's uncle said the victim had been at his apartment earlier Sunday and had said she was going to leave Perez-Estrada, according to the petition.
A medical examiner determined Simon-Franco had been stabbed several dozen times in the face, head, neck, arms and chest, and was nearly decapitated, according to the petition.
Perez-Estrada was in the Country Illegally, Police Visited His Apartment Over Domestic Incident Two Weeks Before Stabbing
The petition stated that Perez-Estrada had been living in Mexico for several months but returned on March 11. He was charged by federal authorities with illegal entry and released. On March 17, Carol Stream police were called to the apartment for a domestic incident, but no criminal charges were filed, according to the petition.
On Thursday, the court granted the state's motion to detain Perez-Estrada pre-trial. He is due back in court on April 25.
