Posted on September 19, 2005

Cops: Dad Is Dad of Dumped Babies

Carly Baldwin, Jersey Journal (Jersey City), Sept. 17

Both father and daughter were arraigned yesterday in the gruesome and chilling story of alleged incest, shame and murder in West New York.

Jose Julio Ventura, 44, was arrested Thursday and identified as the father of the two babies his daughter, Lucila Ventura, bore and then allegedly threw out the bathroom window of their apartment on 64th Street.

Yesterday in Jersey City, Jose Ventura was charged with sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child and child abuse, Hudson County First Assistant Prosecutor Guy Gregory said.

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She delivered both infants alone and then, police said, threw each one down the 31-foot air shaft. Only the boy survived the fall, landing on a pile of discarded cigarette boxes.

Lucila Ventura confessed to being the mother of both babies — the boy who was found on Tuesday and the girl, whose mummified remains were found Wednesday — and she also confessed to hurling them out the window, authorities said.

{snip}

Both father and daughter are citizens of El Salvador and legal resident aliens in the United States. If both are found guilty, they could serve their jail time here and then be deported to El Salvador.