Insets: Corena Minjarez, Jesus Dominguez Jr. and Yesenia Dominguez (Pueblo Police Department). Background The storage facility in Pueblo, Colo., where Yesenia Dominguez was found dead after allegedly being killed by Corena Minjarez (Google Maps).
A Colorado woman is on trial this week for allegedly killing two young children, ages 3 and 5, with help from their father — hiding one of their bodies in a container filled with “hardened concrete” and the other in a car trunk for nearly a decade — until her mom grew suspicious, cops and prosecutors say.
Corena Minjarez, 37, is facing two counts of first-degree murder of a victim under 12 years old by a person in a position of trust and two counts of abuse of a corpse for the 2018 slayings of Jesus Dominguez Jr., 5, and Yesenia Dominguez, 3, according to court records.
Minjarez and Jesus Dominguez, the children”s father, allegedly killed the kids and then stowed away their bodies inside a unit at the Kings Storage facility at 617 W Sixth Street in Pueblo and a suitcase in the trunk of Minjarez’s car. Dominguez has reportedly accepted a plea deal in which he agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for testifying against Minjarez, whom he allegedly had a tumultuous relationship with, according to The Pueblo Chieftain, citing testimony from local police detectives at an October 2024 preliminary hearing.
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As the relationship soured, prosecutors say Minjarez allegedly took her frustrations and anger out on Jesus and Yesenia, along with growing extremely jealous of the children’s biological mother. The Chieftain reported that family members of Minjarez told investigators they were concerned over Minjarez’s treatment of the kids, citing testimony from Pueblo detectives who spoke to them.
During a previous alleged incident, Minjarez had locked Yesenia in a room and forced her to finish eating a carrot. Her own teenage son allegedly got onto her for being too hard on the kids, according to prosecutors.
A friend of Minjarez’s told cops she allegedly confessed to hiding Jesus and Yesenia’s bodies in 2018 after they both died “the exact same way” of accidental causes.
Minjarez’s mother ended up being the one who reported her to police after she grew suspicious of a metal container full of concrete inside Minjarez and Dominguez’s unit at Kings Storage, which was getting ready to be cleared out by facility workers after the couple was evicted, according to the Chieftain. She told investigators about a number of disturbing signs she allegedly noticed over the years — including a “foul smell” coming from Minjarez’s car in the summer of 2018 — before she eventually called cops in January 2024, the Chieftain reports.
On Jan. 20, officers responded to Kings Storage and allegedly found the container.
“The metal container was searched, and the remains of a child were located within the container,” Pueblo Police said in a press release. It was Yesenia and her body was badly decomposed, with her autopsy report listing the manner of death as “homicidal violence” but with no cause due to the severity of the decomposition.
Police located Jesus’ body a couple of weeks later.
“During the investigation detectives located a vehicle belonging to a Corena Minjarez at a local scrap yard,” police said. “On February 6th, 2024, Police executed a search warrant on that vehicle. Police located a suitcase in the trunk of the vehicle. In the suitcase were the remains of a young male child.”
An autopsy revealed that Jesus was the body in question, and that he had also been a victim of “homicidal violence.” The investigation revealed that no missing person reports were ever filed for him or Yesenia.
Jury selection for Minjarez’s trial began Monday, and the proceedings are slated to run through Aug. 29, according to the Chieftain. Dominguez accepted his plea deal on July 10 and was reportedly on the witness list obtained by the local newspaper. He is due to be sentenced on Sept. 12.
