A Utah mother and her son faced justice for their involvement in the chilling kidnapping and murder of a woman who was targeted for cooperating with law enforcement against a family member. The tragic episode has left a community in shock and underscored the dark lengths some will go to in order to silence perceived threats.

Carolina Marquez, aged 43, received a combined prison sentence ranging from eight years to life. This includes two to 20 years for second-degree manslaughter and six years to life for first-degree aggravated kidnapping. Her son, Fernando Marquez, 27, was handed a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice, reflecting his lesser role in the crime.

The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office detailed the harrowing events initiated by Carolina Marquez on February 6, 2021. She orchestrated the abduction of 25-year-old Conzuelo “Nicole” Solorio-Romero. Under her direction, two accomplices, Orlando Tobar and Jorge Medina-Reyes, forcibly removed Solorio-Romero from an apartment at gunpoint, setting a series of tragic events into motion.

The kidnappers, following Marquez’s instructions, drove around to “kill time,” even traveling to the Wyoming border before returning to Salt Lake City, where they brought Solorio-Romero to Marquez’s residence in West Valley City. There, Tobar led her inside at knifepoint, and the victim was interrogated about her cooperation with police. Once she provided the sought information, Medina-Reyes and Tobar each shot her in the head, ending her life.

After the murder, the conspirators regrouped at Marquez’s taco restaurant to devise a plan for disposing of the body. They enlisted the help of Cristian Morales, known as “The Mechanic,” to assist in this grim task. Solorio-Romero’s body was wrapped in plastic and transported by Tobar and Morales to a remote field in Tooele County, where it was discarded.

Back at her home, Carolina Marquez was reportedly seen nonchalantly cleaning the crime scene, a chilling image captured in courtroom photos and reported by local NBC affiliate KSL. Her demeanor was likened to someone casually wiping up a minor spill, underscoring the cold calculation involved in this heinous crime.

Carolina Marquez admitted her “reckless actions” led to Solorio-Romero’s death but claimed she did not believe the victim was going to be killed. Prosecutors reportedly dubbed her remorse as “not genuine.”

Solorio-Romero’s sister Jessica Romero-McDonald read a victim impact statement during the sentencing hearing.

“Nicole wasn’t just a random person you grew to hate; she was my sister, she was a mother, and she was my mother’s daughter,” Romero-McDonald said. “And although you took her from us, you will never take who she truly was from us… I will follow your prison journey, and the moment you have a parole hearing, I will be there, reminding you and the system why you should not be out in our community with our children, our sisters, our mothers and our society. You don’t deserve any forgiveness from us, as we don’t forgive you.”

As Law&Crime previously reported, Tobar, 34, and Medina-Reyes, 26, pleaded guilty to murder and aggravated kidnapping. Both men were sentenced to two terms of 15 years to life in prison. Two others pleaded to misdemeanor desecration of a body charges.

“We mourn the loss of Nicole and sympathize with the pain that her family and loved ones have endured and will likely continue to face the rest of their lives. We hope that the conclusion of this case will help our community feel safer now that a judge has determined [Carolina Marquez] will spend years behind bars for her heinous crimes,” Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said in a statement.