Husband charged with murder more than year after wife's body was found in trash bags
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- More than a year later, we've learned what happened to Houston mother Stephanie Hernandez. Her dead body was found in trash bags on Sandpiper Drive in southwest Houston in Sept. 2021. Her common-law husband, Fidel Baquin, was just arrested and charged in her death.
Police have investigated the murder for the last year. They say DNA evidence and trash bags found in Baquin's apartment tied him to the crime.
A translator had to be used in court for 33-year-old Baquin, who is a Guatemalan national. He was officially charged with first-degree murder.
In 2021, witnesses noticed trash bags on Sandpiper Drive covered in flies with a foul odor and blood leaking out of them. It turns out, Baquin's wife was inside those bags bound with landscaper cord. The official cause of death was ligature strangulation.
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When an officer searched Baquin's apartment, he found trash bags similar to the ones Hernandez was found in. DNA tests were done on the bags, portions of Hernandez's body and the red wire she was bound with.
Early Friday morning, Baquin was given a $350,000 bond. Baquin has to remain in Harris County while the case is pending and follow several other rules. He will need to wear a GPS monitor and obey a curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Additionally, Baquin is not to have contact with Hernandez's family and any witnesses in the case.
