A search continues in Veracruz after a pregnant woman was found dead on Sunday — minus her unborn child.

Ángela Rodríguez Carvajal, 19, was seven months pregnant when she died of a vaginal hemorrhage after giving birth, authorities in the city of Veracruz said.

Her body was found on a vacant lot, but there was no sign of the baby.

A theory that Rodríguez died following an attempted abortion has been rejected by her family, who claim the young woman wanted the baby. Despite complications that arose during the pregnancy she always sought medical help, said a friend.

At one point she had to be hospitalized and told her family that if she died and the baby survived she wanted an aunt in Tijuana to care for the child. Before that she had suffered from kidney failure.

Meanwhile, Rodríguez’s family is hoping the baby can be found.

There are similarities in the case to two others that occurred in April. Also in Veracruz, a 23-year-old pregnant woman was murdered by another woman who extracted the unborn baby from the womb. The infant was later found and survived.

A little more than a week earlier, a 20-year-old Tamaulipas woman who was eight months pregnant disappeared in Tampico. Her body was found four days later in the home of a woman who allegedly used a knife to extract the fetus while the mother was still alive. Neither mother nor child survived the ordeal.

Source: XEU (sp)