Pueblo storage owner recounts finding dead child in concrete inside a unit
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) - There is not a day that goes by that Julie Brekke, the owner of Kings Storage in Pueblo, doesn't think about the grim discovery made by police last month in a storage unit on her property: a dead child's remains found in concrete.
Brekke rented a storage unit out to a woman named Corena Rose Minjarez in 2023, and when the payments for the unit stopped, she filed for eviction against Minjarez. After a series of phone calls from various people, Brekke and her daughter removed the lock from the unit in January, and while doing so, noticed a "container with concrete" inside.
The next morning, the owner called Pueblo PD and they made the grisly discovery of a dead child's remains inside the container stuck solid in concrete.
After Pueblo PD made the discovery on Jan. 20, they released the names of two kids who have been missing since the summer of 2018, Jesus Dominguez Jr. and Yesenia Dominguez.
Then, on Feb 16, Pueblo Police announced the remains of both children identified as Jesus and Yesenia had been found, Yesenia in the hardened concrete and Jesus found in a suitcase located inside the back of a car at a local scrapyard.
Pueblo PD has arrested the children's biological father, Jesus Dominguez, and a woman whose relationship to him has not been disclosed, Corena Rose Minjarez, for 1st-degree murder.
KRDO13 Investigates has learned the remains found in the back of the car were found at the Dionisio Metal & Iron scrapyard in Pueblo last month. The owner, Jen Dionisio, says the car the remains were found in was not sold to them by Dominguez or Minjarez. She did not disclose who sold them that vehicle.
Pueblo police say they have spoken with the owner of that vehicle, but could not say whether they were facing any criminal charges or not. Dionisio says she is glad the child's remains were located on her property in hopes it can help bring justice for the children.
Much of what we do not know about the murder investigation is located in the arrest affidavit, papers police submit to a judge to show they have probable cause that someone committed the crime charged. In this case, 10th Judicial District Attorney Jeff Chostner says that the document has been sealed to help preserve the integrity of their active murder investigation.
Instead, KRDO13 Investigates is learning more about what happened to these children from people who interacted with Dominguez and Minjarez, people like Julie Brekke. She says the children's father was "emotionless" when he found out he was being evicted from his storage unit.
"You would think that there would be panic that he was being evicted, and there wasn't," Brekke said. "He was so nonchalant about everything. Like, there was no big deal. He was more like, well, I'm going to have to try to find some way of moving all this stuff out of here."
Brekke is a mom of four kids herself, one of whom she has taken in who has autism. She lost her son and one of her step-sons years ago and is struggling to see why a parent would allegedly take these measures to get rid of their own biological children.
"There are so many people out there that would have loved them," Brekke said. "It did not have to happen the way it did because there were grandparents out there that would have taken care of those kids."
Moving forward, she hopes Dominguez and Minjarez "sing like a canary" and "repent" for what they're accused of doing to these young children.
"They need to let everybody know what happened. Because it didn't need to happen if it was an accident. They need to tell people how it happened because people need to know," Brekke said. "I mean, they're going to go away, and they're going to have a rough time in prison because not a lot of people like baby killers."
Both Dominguez and Minjarez are facing first-degree murder charges and are being held in the Pueblo County Jail on a $2 million cash-only bond.
