By Erik Ortiz—
NBC News
Two suspects were arrested Monday in connection with the deaths of two Colorado children whose remains were found a few weeks ago: the minor in a container filled with concrete and the child in a suitcase in the trunk of a car, police records stated. jail.
Jesús Domínguez and Corena Rose Minjarez were arrested last week on two counts of first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse each in the deaths of the children.
Jesús
Domínguez Jr. and Yesenia Domínguez
, indicated the Pueblo Police Department.
Investigators said they were unaware of either man's disappearance until last month, when police discovered Yesenia's body.
Neither of them had been seen since the summer of 2018, when Jesús was 5 years old and the little girl was 3, the police stated.
The man was
the father of the victims
and has a romantic relationship with Minjarez, who is not related to the minors, according to Denver's KUSA network and an NBC News affiliate.
Jesus Dominguez and Yesenia Dominguez.Pueblo Police Dept.
Both Dominguez, 35, and Minjarez, 36, remain held on $2 million bail, according to Pueblo County jail records.
Their arrests came after investigators asked the community for help over the past few weeks.
[Two 10-year-old boys die in a crash that occurred while their father was fleeing from authorities in Wisconsin]
On Jan. 20, Pueblo Police responded to a report of suspicious activity and reported that officers found a metal container in a storage unit with hardened concrete.
Two days later, authorities determined that the remains of a girl were inside.
Around that time period, authorities said, they began searching for Dominguez and Minjarez as persons of interest, even though they did not initially name the couple in a news release.
Pueblo police did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
During interviews with police last month, the possibility of the children being in Phoenix, Arizona, was brought up.
However, investigators “followed that possible lead without success,” police said.
Meanwhile, a car belonging to Minjarez was found in a junkyard.
A search of the trunk of the car on February 6 resulted in
the discovery of a child inside a suitcase
, agents explained.
[They investigate the discovery of a dead child in an immigrant shelter as a possible suicide]
On Thursday, DNA testing confirmed that the girl in the warehouse was Yesenia and the boy in the suitcase was Jesus, and arrest warrants were issued for Dominguez and Minjarez.
Aside from the murder charge, Dominguez also faces a charge of theft from government benefit programs.
Pueblo police explained that no report had been filed about the children's disappearance, and that they were alerted to their situation last month, when the investigation began.