PUEBLO — The co-owner of Kings Storage facility in Pueblo said she has dealt with a few challenging tenants over the years, but nothing compares to the discovery made on her property exactly one month ago.
"There's a lot of people that are affected by this. You know, it affects this whole town," said co-owner Julie Brekke.
Pueblo Police said they found the remains of a child encased in concrete inside a metal container in one of the storage units on West 6th Street. Police said the remains were identified as Yesenia Dominguez. The remains of her brother, Jesus Dominguez Jr., were found about two weeks later in a suitcase in the trunk of a vehicle at a local scrapyard. Police said the children were last seen in 2018, but no missing persons reports were made.
Officers said the vehicle found at the scrapyard belonged to 36-year-old Corena Rose Minjarez who has since been arrested along with the father of the two children, 35-year-old Jesus Dominguez. Police said they were in a relationship.
Brekke said she had been renting a storage unit to Minjarez for a few years. Brekke said when Minjarez stopped paying the bill in November of 2023, she evicted her from the unit. She said the couple did not show up to claim any of the items inside the unit despite giving them notice before the close-out date.
She said the only person to show up to claim any of the belongings was Minjarez's mother, who came across the metal container filled with concrete.
"She wanted me to go down and see what I thought about it, and I went down. I said, 'Yeah, that does look a little suspicious. You know, but you need to probably call the police,'" Brekke said. "You have your suspicions that there's probably something there, but you really don't want to go to the dark side."
Brekke said she couldn't tell what was inside the container because it was filled with concrete. Pueblo Police said they processed the container and discovered Yesenia's remains inside.
Brekke said the dark discovery has tied her closer to the suspect's mother.
"My heart bleeds for Corena's mom, as a mom myself, because I couldn't imagine what if one of my kids did that," she said.
Still, with so many questions, Brekke continues to return every day to her family's business, but not without thinking about the little girl whose life was cut short.
"I just take a deep breath and I just come in and I just keep forging forward," she said. "I think about her every day I come in here. I'm sure her little spirit's around here somewhere."
Jesus Dominguez and Corena Minjarez are both charged with two counts of first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse. They are both scheduled for their first appearances in court on Wednesday morning.
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