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HCSO: Teen Killed Girlfriend's Mom, Stuffed Body In Suitcase

POSTED: Tuesday, September 2, 2008
UPDATED: 6:09 pm CDT September 2, 2008

A teenager was accused of strangling his girlfriend's mom, stuffing her body in a suitcase and dumping it in the woods, KPRC Local 2 reported Tuesday.

Harris County sheriff's deputies said a man spotted a suitcase in the woods as he drove along Guinn Street near 10th Street in northeast Harris County on Sunday.

Detectives said the man partially opened the suitcase, found the body inside and called the sheriff's office.

The Harris County Medical Examiner's Office determined that the woman inside was Maria Rodriguez, a 55-year-old wife and mother who was reported missing on Friday.

Investigators talked to Rodriguez's 17-year-old daughter, Priscilla, about her mother's death.

Priscilla Rodriguez confessed to helping her 18-year-old boyfriend, Gerson Funes-Reina, put her mother's body in the suitcase and get rid of it, detectives said.

According to court documents, Funes-Reina strangled Maria Rodriguez. He allegedly went to the family's home wearing black clothing and gloves and carrying a rope.

"Once the boyfriend entered the house, he gave the daughter, Priscilla, some earplugs to put in and said, 'Put these in. You're not gonna want to hear this,'" said Capt. Craig Clopton with the Harris County Sheriff's Department.

Funes-Reina has been charged with murder and is being held in the Harris County Jail without bond. Investigators said he is from Honduras and is in the United States illegally.

Deputies said Priscilla Rodriguez admitted to cutting a window screen to give Funes-Reina access to her family' home. She has been charged with abuse of corpse.

"The daughter, after being questioned, admitted to knowing about the body being dumped. She implicated herself as knowing about it. She implicated her boyfriend as killing her mother," Clopton said.

The motive for the killing has not been released, but a neighbor told investigators that the mother and daughter had an argument last week.

The official cause of Maria Rodriguez's death remains under investigation.

"I still cannot believe it. I would not believe it to this day that it would be planned by that girl because that girl did not have that kind of mentality or comprehension," neighbor Pam Vargas said.

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