SAN ANTONIO – An arrest warrant affidavit contains new details concerning the arrest of a Southwest Bexar County woman who is suspected of lying about the details of her miscarriage, as well as the search for her missing fetus.
Victoria Ochoa, 36, was taken into custody Monday evening by Bexar County Sheriff’s Office detectives.
She was later booked into jail on a charge of altering, destroying or concealing a human corpse.
Speaking to reporters after her arrest, Sheriff Javier Salazar detailed how Ochoa showed up at Southwest General Hospital Dec. 12, telling medical staff that she was hemorrhaging after suffering a miscarriage at home.
“(She) described a small baby,” Salazar said. “She claims that she had had the miscarriage into the toilet, panicked and then flushed the toilet.”
Doctors, however, later examined the placenta and umbilical cord and determined her story didn’t add up, Salazar said.
He said they found that the baby, instead, would have been close to full term, approximately 34-37 weeks.
“That baby would have been way too big to have been flushed in that condition. Even a small baby of that gestational period would've been way too big,” Salazar said.
He said it’s still unclear what happened to the infant’s body.
Ochoa initially was questioned about it by San Antonio police investigators.
They then turned the case over to the sheriff’s office after they determined it was not in their jurisdiction.
The arrest affidavit says Ochoa was brought to the hospital by her boyfriend and his mother, who both denied knowing she was pregnant.
It says although she was weak and underwent a blood transfusion, she checked out of the hospital early, against medical advice, after police questioned her.
Sheriff’s detectives later found Ochoa at her Southwest Bexar County home in the 10400 block of Hollowell Road and questioned her again.
She repeated the story about miscarrying a fetus that was not fully developed, according to detectives.
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Detectives obtained a warrant and searched the property, including the septic tank.
The affidavit says they found no evidence of human remains in that tank but did notice drops and smears of blood in a bathroom.
The mother of Ochoa’s boyfriend told investigators she had cleaned up the blood so that others could use the restroom, the affidavit says.
“Just when you think in law enforcement that you've heard it all, a case like this one comes along,” Salazar said.
During his news conference Monday night, the sheriff indicated that he believed other people may have been involved, although he did not offer names.
He said there could be more arrests to come.