The Wisconsin man who killed his pregnant girlfriend and stuffed her remains into a suitcase will serve decades in prison.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, Jose Eduardo Dominguez-Garcia, 27, has long been suspected of killing Rosaly Cindy Chavarria Rodriguez, 25. Her remains were discovered in October 2020, months after she was last seen, inside a suitcase in an abandoned farmhouse in Wisconsin Dells, about 55 miles northwest of Madison.
Dominguez-Garcia entered a no contest plea to first-degree reckless homicide on January 8. His plea agreement included the dismissal of charges of homicide of an unborn child and concealment of a corpse.
Chippewa County Circuit Judge James M. Isaacson imposed a 40-year sentence on Friday, with 25 years as “initial confinement” and the remaining 15 years as “extended supervision.” The judge also granted a time-served credit of 525 days.
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The defendant was also required to stay away from all “victims, their residences, or places of employment.”
The quarter-century sentence is significantly less than Chavarria Rodriguez’s family had hoped for. According to Eau Claire ABC affiliate WQOW, her parents requested the maximum penalty of 60 years.
“He took away two lives: my daughter’s and the baby she was carrying,” her father, Jorge Chavarria, told the station. “I’d like to see the Chippewa authorities impose the maximum penalty. I don’t want them to be flexible toward him.”
He hoped the court would not be compassionate, as Dominguez-Garcia was not compassionate toward his daughter, according to the station.
Dominguez-Garcia was charged with murder in December 2021, even though his whereabouts were unknown at the time.
He was eventually apprehended in November 2023 after police in Gladstone, Missouri, noticed a vehicle with a stolen plate driving through the city. Officers later discovered the red Ford Fusion in a parking lot on the 400 block of NW Englewood Road.
The murder charge was later changed to first-degree reckless homicide.
Chavarria Rodriguez was last seen alive on July 2, 2020, while working at Sprecher’s Restaurant in Lake Delton, Wisconsin. Dominguez-Garcia picked up the victim’s final paycheck from Sprecher’s on July 23, 2020, the day after his own last day of work, according to a Leader-Telegraph report.
He allegedly told investigators at the time that he and Rodriguez had ended their relationship on July 4th after discovering she had cheated on him; another man had apparently fathered the child she was carrying when she died.
When police discovered Chavarria Rodriguez’s red 2003 Volkswagen Jetta in August of that year, investigators suspected they found fluids indicating that someone had stuffed a newly decaying body in the trunk.
However, there was no sign of the victim until an informant in a drug case led authorities to a vacant farm in Wheaton between 20th and 30th Avenue along the Highway T corridor. In October 2020, they discovered Chavarria Rodriguez’s body stuffed into a purple suitcase at the farmhouse.
It took nearly a year to confirm that the remains were Chavarria Rodriguez’s.
Chavarria Rodriguez was reportedly seven weeks and five days pregnant at the time of her doctor’s appointment on June 18, 2020.
Chavarria Rodriguez leaves behind a 9-year-old daughter, who now lives with the victim’s mother in Peru, according to Milwaukee ABC affiliate WISN. Family members have reportedly been unable to provide a proper burial for their daughter; perhaps in response to these concerns, Isaacson ordered that Chavarria Rodriguez’s body be released to her family on Friday.
“She was a family girl and was always responsible. “She enjoyed studying,” Jorge Chavarria told WQOW. “That’s how we would like her to be remembered.”
