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Third Person Charged in Southwest Side Dismemberment Murder

By Darryl Holliday | December 29, 2013 12:41pm
 Police have launched a death investigation after a dismembered body was found buried in a yard in Ashburn Friday.
Body Found Buried in Yard in Ashburn
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CHICAGO — A third person has been charged in a sordid tale of jealously, ambush, murder and dismemberment that left a Southwest Side community reeling in October.

Milton Miranda, 22, was arrested in Morristown, N.J., extradited back to Chicago and charged with first-degree murder and issuance of a warrant. He was ordered held without bail Sunday.

Prosecutors said Miranda and his 19-year-old girlfriend, Daisy Gutierrez conspired to lure Jose Reyes, 29, to her home on May 21 with the intention of killing him.

As she undressed for her prey in her bedroom, Miranda kicked in the door, burst into the room and decapitated the man, 29-year-old Jose Reyes, prosecutors said in court two days after Reyes' body was discovered buried in the backyard of Gutierrez's home.

Miranda beat Reyes, slit his throat, cut his head off and helped bury his dismembered body in pieces in a Southwest Side back yard, authorities said.

Prosecutors in October said the couple killed the man because he had been flirting with Gutierrez, who is the mother of two children fathered by the dead man's brother.

Gutierrez, three months pregnant when she was arrested in October, then enlisted her 56-year-old father to dig a grave in his backyard and bury the body in the 8300 block of South Scottsdale Avenue., prosecutors said. He spent three hours digging the grave and helping to place Reyes' remains in a plastic bag, prosecutors said.

Gutierrez and her father, Salvador Gutierrez, were charged a day after Reyes' body was discovered.

Prosecutors said Gutierrez and Miranda fled to New Jersey a day after killing Reyes, whose murder that left the surrounding community at a loss for answers.

Kayla Taylor, 17, who stood with her mother and younger sister behind yellow police crime scene tape in October, said she lived a couple of doors from the house where police found the body.

She could not believe something so grisly could happen so close to home, Kayla said.

"I think it's crazy because they said it happened about five months ago, so we've been living here the last five months and didn't even know," she said.

Dave Weller, 56, lives across the street from the home where Reyes’ remains were found. He described the weekend’s scene as a “party,” saying neighbors joined him on his front porch for pizza and beer as the scene unfolded on the normally quiet block.

But the festive scene was disrupted by the smell emanating from the Gutierrez home.

"I can't even think of what it smelled like. It was just terrible. It was so bad the people next door left," Weller said.

CONTRIBUTING: Quinn Ford, Josh McGhee, Emily Morris and Alex Parker