ICE claims suspect in murder of San Jose mother is undocumented

ALAMEDA COUNTY, Calif. (KTVU) - The suspect accused of killing a young San Jose mother was charged Friday.

Esmid Pedraza was in custody on an unrelated charge when he was arrested. 

According to ICE, Pedraza is an undocumented immigrant.

Pedraza was charged with homicide in the death of his 22-year-old girlfriend, Stacey Aguilar, a mother of two children.

Hayward police Chief Diane Urban said Aguilar’s boyfriend, later identified as Pedraza, was arrested on Feb. 16, three days after Aguilar was last seen at a party near the corner of Silva Avenue and Jackson Street in Hayward at about 11 a.m. on Feb. 13.

Aguilar's family reported her missing on Feb. 16, the day that Pedraza was arrested, and Hayward detectives found her body in a rural area off of Morrison Canyon Road in Fremont at about noon on Saturday, Urban said.

Urban said police interviewed Aguilar's boyfriend after she disappeared "along with a multitude of other people."

Urban said police believe Aguilar was killed in Hayward before her body was disposed of in Fremont.

Alameda County coroner's bureau had preliminarily classified Aguilar's death as a homicide.

She was found to have suffered numerous gunshot wounds, although the official cause of death is still pending.