How a cellphone number led police to Elmhurst murder suspect

A young woman goes missing in the dead of night, after an acquaintance gets a call from her and hears a struggle followed by a hang-up.

Less than a day later, Elmhurst police have a murder suspect in custody.

How did investigators so quickly find the evidence needed to charge a man with killing 21-year-old Claudia Mojarrieta-Matos? By starting with a cellphone number, according to court documents.

Santino Ortiz, 22, of Elmhurst, is charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery in the slaying of Mojarrieta-Matos, a Greenacres, Florida, resident found stabbed to death Sunday in far north suburban Wadsworth.

The investigation started when a man called police at 4:35 a.m. Saturday to report Mojarrieta-Matos missing. He gave police the phone number of a man with whom she had been in contact that day, as well as an Elmhurst address to which he had driven her, according to DuPage County prosecutors.

Police, using databases available to law enforcement, confirmed that the number belonged to Ortiz, who lives in the 600 block of West Belden Avenue, near where Mojarrieta-Matos was dropped off, prosecutors said.

When questioned by officers at about 5:30 a.m., Ortiz denied knowing Mojarrieta-Matos. But police later checked the neighborhood for doorbell surveillance videos, and found one showing Mojarrieta-Matos walking from Lorraine Avenue, through the backyard of Ortiz’s rear neighbor and to Ortiz’s garage, authorities said.

Confronted over the phone later that morning, Ortiz admitted he had solicited Mojarrieta-Matos for paid sex, prosecutors allege.

According to a petition filed by prosecutors, investigators later found apparent blood dripping from a passenger-side door of Ortiz’s pickup truck, as well as in a garbage can, and wet rags in the truck. A red stain was located on the rear passenger seat, and in the garage police found “significant areas of suspected blood,” prosecutors allege.

On Sunday, after consulting with his father and a lawyer, Ortiz admitted to killing Mojarrieta-Matos, according to the petition. He said Mojarrieta-Matos tried to slap him when he changed his mind about their agreement and asked her to leave. Prosecutors say he told police he knocked her down, slammed her head repeatedly on the garage floor, then stabbed her before hiding her body in a garbage can.

After the early morning police visit Saturday, and before his later confession, Ortiz drove to an area near Wadsworth and disposed of Mojarrieta-Matos’ body, according to the petition. Even though Ortiz had turned off the location data on his cellphone, data extracted from his truck’s infotainment system confirmed his travels, prosecutors said.

He later led police to the body, which was found about 40 feet off a road Sunday, authorities said.

Ortiz appeared in a DuPage County courtroom Tuesday and was ordered to be held in custody while awaiting trial. He’s set to return to court Jan. 5.

DHS agent loses appeal

A disgraced former Department of Homeland Security agent from Naperville, who authorities say tipped off criminals to FBI and DEA investigations in exchange for cash, won’t be getting a new trial, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

Anthony Sabaini, 43, was sentenced to 74 months in prison after a jury found him guilty in 2023 of illegally structuring financial transactions, concealing material facts from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and filing false federal tax returns.

Authorities said those actions were intended to hide the Homeland Security Investigations agent’s ill-gotten proceeds from corrupt activity.

That included tipping off an informant to investigations by other law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and DEA, in return for at least $50,000, federal prosecutors said. Sabaini also stole thousands in cash from drug dealers and pocketed money intended for use during federal investigations, authorities said.

At the time, Sabaini was assigned to the Oakbrook Terrace field office of HSI, which is a criminal investigative unit of the Department of Homeland Security. His actions were discovered in 2018, when his confidential informant was arrested by the DEA and agents found “alarming” text messages between the two, court documents state.

In his appeal, Sabaini argued that federal prosecutors failed to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and relied on unreliable witnesses — namely, drug dealers — to convict. He’d testified at trial that large cash deposits he’d made while working at HSI were from the sale of gold coins given to him by his father, not illegal proceeds.

Jurors didn’t buy it, and the 7th Circuit Appellate Court saw no reason to disagree Wednesday.

“Sabaini’s defense presented a ‘factual jury question’ and the jury rejected it,” Judge Joshua Kolar wrote in the unanimous ruling. “The arguments Sabaini presents on appeal mirror those the jury rejected. We see no basis to disturb the jury’s verdict.”

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