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WGN-TV9 is reporting that first responders arrived on-scene and found the body of a woman who has since been identified as 23-year-old Atalia Pucheta Martinez.
After the body was identified, Mount Prospect Police began investigating and eventually interviewed Martinez’s ex-boyfriend, 26-year-old Juan Pio Toto.
Mount Prospect Police said that Toto had confessed that he and Martinez had been arguing in the parking lot of their apartment complex early that morning, and that she had fallen and hit her head.
He then told police he put her body in his vehicle and drove to the wooded area where he left her.
Toto was charged with concealment of a death, a charge that is not considered a detainable offense under the Pretrial Fairness Act, according to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Toto appeared in Rolling Meadows Court Tuesday and was granted pre-trial release. Pre-Trial release is where the charged defendant is released from jail pending appearance for their next court date.
Toto has been place on electronic monitoring and was ordered to turn in his passport. He is not allowed to leave the state or have contact with Martinez’s family and is due back in Rolling Meadows Court on Dec. 6 at 9 a.m.
No word on why Toto is not facing other charges, including failure to render aid, as he did not take her to a hospital, and no word on why he felt leaving her in a wooded area was the best option.
Anyone with additional information is asked to call the Mount Prospect police at 847-870-5656.
