After she disclosed his name to authorities before she passed away, a man has been accused with fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend on a Loop CTA platform over the weekend.
“A key piece of evidence in this case came from the victim herself,” First Deputy Supt. Eric Carter said as he announced first-degree murder charges against Alejandro Arellano, 31. ”She named Arellano as the offender before she succumbed to her injuries.”
Around 1:20 a.m. on Saturday, Arellano followed 26-year-old Samantha Maldonado up the stairs to the platform of the Adams/Wabash L station, according to Chicago Police Public Transportation Cmdr. Joe Bird.
She was being halted as she walked towards an approaching train when he approached her on the platform, according to Bird.
Maldonado pushed Bird as she attempted to flee, drew a knife, and repeatedly stabbed her, according to Bird. Before she passed out, she was able to run out onto the street. She was discovered by responding officers on the 200 block of South Wabash Avenue with a blood trail leading from the station, according to the police.
Maldonado, who was born and raised in Ecuador, was sent to Stroger Hospital with injuries to her left arm, chest, and abdomen, according to authorities.
Arellano escaped on a train, but detectives were able to follow him using surveillance footage from the CTA and the police, Carter said. About 15 hours later, they were able to apprehend him in the 1600 block of North Kimball Avenue.
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The police report states that when he was brought into custody, he was in possession of a folding knife.
Arellano was previously detained in August 2014 after a report that he attacked a person with a knife. According to court documents, he was accused of aggravated assault, but the case was later dropped.
“Although this offender is in custody, there’s still a family at the center of this who is grieving the loss of a young woman who had her whole life ahead of her,” Carter told reporters Monday morning.
Paulette Lopez, Maldonado’s cousin, described her as someone with “long, brown beautiful hair, sweet eyes and a really sweet smile.”
The two were able to exchange Christmas presents for the first time in December when Maldonado came to Chicago from Ecuador. “She was very joyful,” Lopez said. “She was always willing to meet new people.”
Some of Maldonado’s goals included building her own business and traveling the world. She graduated from a “top university in Ecuador and was taking English classes here,” according to a GoFundMe page set up to raise money for her funeral.
“Sami was and is a truly one-of-a-kind, beautiful soul,” Lopez wrote on the GoFundMe page. “She loved easily and is loved by so many. She constantly looked out for others and was generous at heart, ready to help anyone at a moment’s notice.”
Her cousin’s murder “turned her family upside down a bit,” Lopez said. “It’s a rollercoaster of anger and sadness.”
Maldonado’s parents flew in from Ecuador after the stabbing, and the family were busy cooperating with police and gathering funds for Maldonado’s funeral.
Lopez says she and her family were grateful for the “people and officers who were able to be there with her when we weren’t. We just want to be able to live our lives as fully as she did.”
