NH woman among 4 charged in Maryland teen’s machete death
A Manchester, NH, woman, identified by police as a member of the MS-13 gang, is among four people arrested in the machete killing of a teenage girl.
GAITHERSBURG, MD – A Manchester, NH, woman, identified by police as a member of the MS-13 gang, is among four people arrested in the machete killing of a teenage girl.
Aracely Abarca-Melgar, 21, is charged with first-degree murder along with her co-defendants, Roberto Carlos Rivera-Delgado, 23, of Gaithersburg; Iris Yudella Alonzo-Salgado, 23, of Frederick, and a 16-year-old boy, whose name police did not release because he is a minor.
MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha) is an international criminal organization that was formed by Salvadoran immigrants in the 1980s in Los Angeles. It is known for committing brutal acts of violence against rival gang members and non-gang members.
According to Montgomery County Police, the four accused, all MS-13 gang members, took 18-year-old Rosa Sanchez Merino to a wooded area on May 1, 2023, where they killed her with a machete in an “unauthorized” gang murder.
The four are accused of leading Sanchez Merino into the woods, forcing her to her knees and then each taking turns striking her in the neck with a machete, killing her.
Afterward, they buried her in a shallow grave in the woods in the 3600 block of Brookville Road, in Olney according to police.
In late September, 2023, Rivera-Delgado was arrested for a parole violation in Nevada and extradited to Maryland. He reportedly led Montgomery County Department of Police – Major Crimes detectives to the site where Sanchez Merino was buried.
Sanchez Merino’s death was ruled a homicide after an Oct. 1, 2023, autopsy performed by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Abarca Melgar was arrested in New York.
The 16-year-old will be tried as an adult.