Update on the Arrest Made in Connection with Lizzbeth Aleman-Popoca
Posted by East Haven Police Department on Sunday, December 27, 2020
Police in East Haven, Connecticut have announced the arrest of a man in the death of his girlfriend. Jonathan X. Jara-Aucapina, 27, faces a count of murder for allegedly killing Lizzbeth Aleman-Popoca, 27.
The victim was reported missing on July 1. Aleman-Popoca, the mother of a now 8-year-old girl, was found in a shallow grave that month behind a dumpster near LoMonaco’s Ristorante, a Bradford-area establishment where Jara-Aucapina worked. No charges were immediately filed, but Lizzbeth’s family told Fox 61 in an October report that they had not seen or heard from Jara-Aucapina since the discovery of the body.
Now cops are officially blaming the boyfriend for Aleman-Popoca’s death. In a press conference on Sunday, East Haven Police Chief Ed Lennon described the killing as an act of domestic violence. Jara-Aucapina was taken into custody without incident at Cody’s Diner in New Haven, police said.
The defendant made up a story that Aleman-Popoca had run off, though he knew she was already dead, Lennon said. He told this lie to Lizzbeth’s family, her loved ones, and after her family basically forced him to report her missing, . Jara-Aucapina kept lying to investigators, and attempted to conceal where he had buried her, Lennon said. The chief cited evidence and “countless hours of interviews” in leading up to the arrest. East Haven Police spokesman Captain Joseph M. Murgo tells Law&Crime that the arrest affidavit remains under seal.
ONLY ON 8: We are hearing from the family of #EastHaven mother Lizzbeth Alemán Popoca. Her boyfriend now charged with her murder after she was found buried in a shallow grave behind his workplace. Her family says the arrest is bittersweet. Hear from them next at 8 on WCTX. @WTNH pic.twitter.com/8rrOlSEvr2
— Shaynah Ferreira (@ShaynahFerreira) December 29, 2020
“She was basically the only thing I had in life, and for him to know that and kill her and to take that away from me and my niece, it’s a lot,” Lizzbeth’s sister Yaneth Alemán told WTNH in a Monday report.
[Mugshot via East Haven Police Department]
