Woman faked pregnancy before taking Baby Sofia, police say

Wichita police say a Texas woman who faked a pregnancy killed a 27-year-old Wichita mother on Thursday and took her newborn, Sofia Gonzales.

Yesenia Sesmas, 34, knew the victim – Laura Abarca-Nogueda – for a few years, Wichita police Lt. Todd Ojile said Monday. But he didn’t elaborate further on the specifics of the women’s relationship.

Through interviews, “detectives learned that Sesmas had faked a pregnancy over the last several months and then had traveled to Wichita, Kansas, where she committed the murder and the kidnapping of Sofia and then returned to Dallas,” Ojile said.

She was arrested in Dallas after a police department SWAT team there executed a search warrant at a home in the 900 block of Signet at about 4:15 a.m. Saturday, Ojile said. Sofia, whose name has also been spelled Sophia by police, was found alive and safe inside. She was taken to a Dallas hospital for a health evaluation, he said, and has since been reunited with her family. She is 10 days old now.

“Late Saturday afternoon, Sesmas was booked into the Dallas County Jail on an outstanding felony warrant through Sedgwick County with first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping charges pending,” Ojile said.

Sesmas will be extradited to Kansas to face criminal charges, Ojile said. Wichita police are planning to present their case to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office later today.

Ojile said Sesmas is originally from Texas, has lived in Wichita and recently moved back to her home state.

It is not the first time Sesmas has been accused of a serious crime in Sedgwick County. Police and jail records show that Sesmas was booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on July 25 on suspicion of two counts of aggravated battery, two counts of aggravated kidnapping and one count of kidnapping.

A 37-year-old woman told police that Sesmas battered her and her daughter, according to a July 25 Wichita police report. The alleged victim also said Sesmas kidnapped her and two other people, the report said.

The arrest occurred at a house in the 700 block of South Elizabeth, near Seneca and Kellogg. That location is an address that Sesmas listed when she filed for a divorce in 2015.

Her landlord for the South Elizabeth house, who asked that only his last name, Patel, be used, said she told him last summer that she had moved to Dallas. She texted him on July 23 or 24 that she was going to retrieve some of her belongings. He said he knew nothing about the July 25 incident in which the woman alleged that the aggravated battery and kidnappings occurred.

It’s not clear from court records whether Sesmas was ever charged in the aggravated battery/kidnapping case.

The investigation

Abarca-Nogueda was found shot to death in her apartment in the 200 block of North Brunswick at around 3:30 p.m. Thursday by her live-in boyfriend, 26. He had just arrived home from work, police have said.

After finding his girlfriend dead, he searched the apartment for Sofia – the couple’s then-6-day-old daughter – but couldn’t find her.

Police also came up empty-handed when they scoured the home and neighborhood, near Maple and Ridge.

Authorities on Thursday quickly asked for the public’s help to find the newborn.

On Friday, about 25 FBI agents set up a command post in Wichita City Hall, the site of police headquarters, to aid in the investigation.

“The investigation lasted all day Friday and into Friday night,” Ojile said, when authorities were tipped off to a possible suspect – Sesmas – and the address of the Dallas home where Sofia ultimately was discovered unharmed.

“Immediately upon learning that Sofia was found safely in Dallas, investigators from the Wichita Police Department boarded a Sedgwick County sheriff’s plane and flew to Dallas, Texas, to conduct the interviews,” Ojile said.

Three other people who live at the Dallas address where Sesmas was arrested were questioned at the Dallas Police Department but knew nothing of the scheme, Ojile said. They are Sesmas’ boyfriend, her son and her niece, he said.

Ojile on Monday thanked the FBI, the Dallas Police Department and the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office for their help solving the case.

“This investigation was extremely complex and involved outstanding collaboration and teamwork from numerous agencies,” he said.

The “professionalism, coordination and cooperation between all these agencies was incredible, which enabled us to bring the safe return of Sofia to her family.”

Fundraising efforts

By Monday, a GoFundMe account created to help with Abarca-Nogueda’s funeral costs and other expenses involved in raising Sofia had exceeded its goal of $10,000 and now has a new goal of $15,000.

So far, “Laura’s Memorial Fund” has raised more than $12,000.

The page described Abarca-Nogueda as “a vibrant, beautiful woman,” “loving mother,” a “devoted girlfriend” and a “caring sister, daughter and aunt, simply a friend to us all.”

She also was part of the management team that opened the Chipotle restaurant at Maple and Ridge in 2012 and was popular with her co-workers. They put together a tribute poster last week covered with photos of Abarca-Nogueda and signed it, adding words reflecting what she meant to them.

“Laura, you will be so missed, your smile lit up the room,” one tribute began.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

This story was originally published November 21, 2016 at 10:18 AM with the headline "Woman faked pregnancy before taking Baby Sofia, police say."