On November 17, 2016, the life of Laura Abarca Nogueda, a 27-year-old female, was tragically cut short in her Wichita, Kansas, apartment. Her boyfriend made the horrific discovery when he returned home from work to find her shot to death and their newborn daughter, six-day-old Sophia, missing. The devastating scene sparked an intense investigation to find the infant and bring the person responsible for Laura's murder to justice.
The search for baby Sophia involved local police and the
FBI, who quickly identified a suspect through an investigation of the victim's acquaintances and phone records. The focus of the investigation turned to Yesenia Sesmas, a 34-year-old woman who had known Laura for several years. Authorities discovered that Sesmas had been faking a pregnancy for months and had traveled from Dallas, Texas, to Wichita. Two days after the murder and abduction, a SWAT team raided a home in Dallas where they found baby Sophia alive and safe. Sesmas was arrested at the residence.
Investigators learned that Sesmas, a former co-worker of Abarca Nogueda, had suffered a miscarriage but continued to pretend she was pregnant. Her motive was to steal Laura's baby to pass the child off as her own. After being arrested, Sesmas claimed in a jailhouse interview that the shooting was an accident. She alleged that Abarca Nogueda had agreed to give her the baby but then changed her mind, leading to a struggle where a gun Sesmas had brought to threaten the new mother accidentally discharged. This claim was disputed by Laura's family and friends. It was also revealed that Sesmas had been arrested months earlier in another kidnapping case involving a pregnant woman but had been released on bond.
Yesenia Sesmas was extradited to Kansas to face charges. In June 2018, a jury found her guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, kidnapping, and aggravated interference with parental custody. Prosecutors argued that the act was a calculated and cold-blooded assassination. Sesmas' defense attorney suggested she suffered from mental health issues, but she was found fit to stand trial. In July 2018, she was sentenced to life in prison, ensuring she would spend at least 55 years behind bars for the murder and kidnapping plot that ended a young mother's life and tore a family apart.
