Husband booked in death of Fort Worth woman whose remains were found in field in 2013
Fort Worth police homicide detectives have booked on suspicion of murder the husband of a woman whose skeletal remains were found in 2013 in an open field on the city’s far westside.
Joaquin Diaz Lopez, 37, was on Tuesday accused of killing Ilsy Barrios Monterroso, whose body was discovered by construction workers.
The field where Monterroso’s remains were found on March 20, 2013, is northwest of Calmont Avenue and Altamere Drive. Her skull was separate from, but near, a shallow grave where her other remains were buried.
Monterroso was in her late 20s when she died. Authorities have not released the cause of her death.
The victim’s name was not known for six years. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office in March confirmed it via a DNA comparison to Monterroso’s daughter. Police got in touch with the daughter after she mentioned to her high school counselor that her mother hadn’t been seen since 2012.
Monterroso and Lopez, a pipeline worker, had two children.
Lopez told Monterroso’s brother in 2013 that Monterroso had left the family, the victim’s brother has said.
“I never believed it,” Ilsy’s brother Gelberth Barrios Monterroso told the Star-Telegram earlier this year. ”I knew she would never leave the children behind.”
Lopez was arrested in January in a child sexual assault case and was indicted in September on a child pornography possession charge. Those cases have not been resolved.
Fort Worth police homicide detective Kyle Sullivan told the Star-Telegram earlier this year that Lopez had provided to police an account of his wife’s disappearance and said that he did not report that she was missing.
Defense attorney Bob Gill, who is representing Lopez on the sexual assault charge, has said Lopez has denied involvement in his wife’s death.
Barrios Monterroso, who immigrated with Ilsy from Guatemala and lives in North Carolina, has said he had never met Lopez, only talked by telephone. He heard stories from Ilsy that indicated Lopez had been controlling and sometimes violent.
“He made the children believe that their mother left and abandoned them,” Gelberth said. “I want there to be justice. I want him to pay.”
This story was originally published December 17, 2019 at 6:55 PM.
