Maribel Loera (circled) appears in a Phoenix courtroom during a Sept. 22 plea hearing where she agreed to serve 32 years in prison for child murder and abuse. Inset: Loera's booking photo. (Maricopa County)
PHOENIX - A Phoenix mother will spend 32 years behind bars after taking a plea deal on Tuesday to avoid the death penalty for the horrific abuse and murder of her children, including an adopted 9-year-old girl whose skeletal remains were decaying inside a family home for years.
What we know:
Maribel Loera pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, concealment of a body and multiple counts of severe child abuse on Sept. 22. Under the terms of the agreement, she will be sentenced to 32 years in prison — including 22 years of flat time — followed by lifetime supervised probation. The deal spares her from capital punishment, while her husband and co-defendant, Rafael Loera, remains in custody awaiting a separate trial scheduled for early 2027.
Rafael Loera (Maricopa County Sheriff's Office)
The backstory:
The chilling case first came to light in January 2020 after an 11-year-old girl called 911 to report she had been left home alone at a residence near 59th Avenue and Camelback Road. Responding officers uncovered evidence of severe abuse and immediately turned the girl over to the Arizona Department of Child Safety. Days later, child welfare investigators returned to remove two more children from the residence. Just one hour after those children were taken to safety, a fire broke out at the house, leading firefighters to discover human skeletal remains hidden inside.
Investigators determined that the 9-year-old victim died in late 2016 after Loera failed to get her emergency medical care following an injury. Instead of calling for help, investigators say Loera and her husband concealed the child’s body inside the attic for over three years while inflicting brutal, daily violence on their remaining children — beating them with electrical cords and sticks, burning their skin with matches and slamming their heads into walls.
‘She tried to murder me’
What they're saying:
Before a judge formally accepted the plea, two of the surviving children delivered emotional courtroom testimony describing the lifelong physical and psychological trauma they endured.
Phoenix police and crime scene investigation vehicles line Wolf Street on Jan. 28, 2020, following the discovery of human remains inside a home during a child abuse investigation. (Phoenix Police Department)
A Phoenix Police Department Mobile Command vehicle sits staged near 59th Avenue and Wolf Street on Jan. 28, 2020, during an investigation into child abuse and hidden human remains. (Phoenix Police Department)
One surviving daughter, who was eight years old when her sister died, told the court that seeing her physical scars brings back memories of the abuse as if it happened yesterday. "A lot of this stuff that has happened throughout that time has affected me a lot growing up now — physically, mentally, emotionally," she said, adding that "the abuse that I went through probably like changed me as a person. I don't really look at myself the same … when I look in the mirror."
Her brother recalled a terrifying moment when Loera turned a blade on him, leaving him with permanent scars and deep emotional pain over his sister's death. "She tried to murder me with the knife and I still have the scars on me and I have to deal with all of that every day," he told the judge. "I don't think it should be fair that she'll let out, and I can't even have my sister."
What's next:
With the death penalty taken off the table and several secondary charges dismissed under the agreement, Loera’s release eligibility was revoked pending her official sentencing hearing, which is set for Oct. 16 at 9 a.m.
Map of where firefighters found a child's skeletal remains in 2020:
The Source: Information in this report was gathered from the Phoenix Police Department and Maricopa County Superior Court records.