Looking back: Violence against new moms

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A frantic search for a missing mother and her daughter came to a shocking discovery when the mom's body was believed to be found in Houston on Friday.

The search for Heidi Broussard and her 1-month-old baby started on Thursday, Dec. 12.

After a week of searching, Austin officials believe Broussard's body may have been found in the trunk of a vehicle in northwest Harris County.

A newborn was also found in the home, but her identity has not yet been released.

Why would a woman kill a mother and take her baby? Experts say often it's not maternal envy or a desire for motherhood, but an attempt to hold on to a husband or boyfriend.

That was the case in many of the instances in Houston and across the country over the past several years.

2019

A mother-daughter duo from Chicago are accused of murdering a pregnant teen and removing the baby from her body.

Marlen Ochoa-Lopez, 19, was nine months pregnant when she was killed, and the baby was removed from her body and taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center, where he later died.

Clarisa Figueroa and her daughter Desiree are now facing first-degree murder charges.

2017

Erika J. Miranda-Alvarez fatally stabbed Carolina Flores and then took her 6-week-old daughter, Shamali Flores.

The Houston-area mother was found lying on the floor of her Greenspoint apartment with multiple stab wounds in her neck and head.

Baby Shamali was later found safe and police say Miranda-Alvarez admitted to taking the victim's cell phone and hospital wristbands from when the baby was born.

Miranda-Alvarez was charged with capital murder.

2017

Ashleigh Wade was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison after she cut an unborn baby out of her childhood friend's womb.

Wade had faked a pregnancy to her boyfriend, family and on social media, and when Angelikque Sutton, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant, visited her apartment under the guise of picking up a present, police say Wade stabbed Sutton to death.

Wade then used a paring knife to deliver baby Jenasis, who survived the tragic delivery.

2015

A Denver woman was seven months pregnant when she was allegedly lured to the home of Dynel Lane, 34, with a Craigslist ad to buy clothes.

There, police said Lane stabbed Michelle Wilkins in the abdomen and cut out the unborn baby from her womb. The baby did not survive.

2012

Verna McClain shot and killed Kala Golden-Schuchardt who was in the parking lot of her pediatrician's office with her newborn son.

McClain took Kala's baby but was arrested hours later.

Investigators and McClain's relatives said she had a miscarriage and was desperate to find a baby to pass off as her own to her boyfriend who thought she was pregnant.

McClain, a former nurse from Conroe, avoided a possible death sentence by pleading guilty in 2013 and accepting a sentence of life without parole.