Warrant issued for husband of bride found murdered

An arrest warrant was issued Tuesday for the bridegroom of a newly married woman found stabbed to death in her southwest suburban condo’s bathtub.

Arnoldo Jimenez, 30, of Chicago’s Southwest Side, is wanted for the murder of his 26-year-old bride, Estrella Carrera, who was found stabbed “several” times and still wearing her wedding dress, police said.

A Cook County judge on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for Jimenez, who is facing a first-degree murder charge.

“It’s a brutal murder that happened in our town, and we’re going to do the best we can to bring it to a successful conclusion,” Burbank Police Capt. Joseph Ford said.

Jimenez is described as 6 feet tall, 220 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes, police said. His last known address was in the 4200 block of South Mozart, police said. He was last seen driving a black, four-door 2006 Maserati with Illinois license plates L 641 441, police said in a news release.

According to the National Automotive Dealers Association website, that make of car sells for $103,700 to $115,900 new and is worth $65,000 to $71,000 used. Police are not sure what Jimenez does for a living, Ford said.

Jimenez is a native of southeastern Texas, Ford said. He has a previous arrest for domestic battery, not involving Carrera, Ford said.

The couple were married Friday at Chicago’s City Hall. Jimenez is the father of Carrera’s 2-year-old son.

Carrera, who also has an 8-year-old child, was found stabbed to death in a bathtub in her Burbank home, still wearing the silver sequined dress she wore during the wedding celebration late Friday night and into Saturday morning.

Carrera was supposed to pick the children up from a relative’s home Saturday afternoon. When she did not, the relative contacted police. There were no signs of forced entry at the condo in the 7800 block of South Rutherford Avenue, police said.

Following their wedding on Friday, the couple went out with a small group of friends and family to celebrate their nuptials, Ford said. They started out in the Little Village neighborhood before heading further into the city, he said.

The group went to dinner and then to different places, finishing up at a nightclub on Chicago’s North Side, Ford said. The bus then took the group back to where they started and everyone split up – the last time Carrera’s friends and family saw her alive.

A man who answered the phone at the home of a cousin of Carrera declined comment Tuesday evening.

Anyone with information about the case or Jimenez’s whereabouts is asked to call Burbank police at (708) 924-7300.

“Our thoughts go out to the family of Estrella Carrera and especially her small children,” Ford said. “We’re going to do everything we can.”

Contributing: Steve Metsch