Prosecutors say a husband was found driving his wife’s car hours before deputies discovered her body in a vacant Villa Park home.

VILLA PARK, Ill. — A DuPage County murder case unfolded over a few overnight hours in March after relatives reported 24-year-old Estefania Abril-Hernandez missing, state troopers stopped her car on Interstate 80, and deputies found her dead inside a vacant former home in Villa Park, according to prosecutors.

Authorities say the case matters now because it moved quickly from a missing-person report to a homicide charge, and because court records show Brian C. Hernandez, 28, had already been under an order of protection tied to an earlier domestic violence-related case. He was first charged with two counts of first-degree murder, remained jailed after a judge denied pretrial release, and by early April prosecutors had expanded the case and asked for a possible natural life sentence if he is convicted.

The timeline began about 8 p.m. on March 18, when Abril-Hernandez’s family contacted police to say they could not find her. The DuPage County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation at once. Roughly six hours later, at about 2:45 a.m. on March 19, Illinois State Police stopped Abril-Hernandez’s vehicle on I-80. Prosecutors say Hernandez was behind the wheel and had her cellphone with him when troopers detained him. Investigators then traced the couple’s recent movements to a now-vacant residence on the 100 block of 1S Ingersoll Road in unincorporated DuPage County near Villa Park. At about 3:49 a.m., deputies entered through an unlocked window and found Abril-Hernandez on a bed in a second-floor bedroom with a vacuum power cord wrapped around her neck.

Prosecutors say the couple had gone to the former residence earlier on March 18 to clean the property and collect belongings before a foreclosure auction scheduled for the following day. There, authorities allege, an argument began and turned physical. Court filings and public statements say Hernandez strangled Abril-Hernandez with the vacuum cord, wrapping it around her neck more than nine times, then left the scene. Investigators later recovered messages they say he sent to another person after the killing. In one message, according to prosecutors, he said he had something to confess. In another, they say he wrote that he believed Abril-Hernandez was dead. Authorities have not publicly identified the recipient, and public court summaries do not say whether that person contacted police before the traffic stop.

The record released so far also places the killing inside a larger domestic violence case. Prosecutors say Hernandez was already on pretrial release in a 2025 misdemeanor matter alleging disorderly conduct and interference with the reporting of domestic violence. Court records described in later coverage say that earlier case accused him of blocking Abril-Hernandez from leaving and interfering with an attempt to call 911. An order of protection in that case barred him from contact with Abril-Hernandez and the couple’s son, according to prosecutors. Authorities say he also had an active failure-to-appear warrant in that earlier matter. Those details have become central to how local officials are describing the stakes of the new case, arguing that warning signs existed before the March 18 killing.

The prosecution has widened since the first court appearance. On March 23, Judge Joshua Dieden denied pretrial release. Hernandez first appeared in court on March 21, but the matter was continued to March 23 at the request of the public defender, prosecutors said. By April 7, prosecutors told the court Hernandez faced five counts of first-degree murder and filed a motion seeking a natural life sentence if he is convicted, arguing that the order of protection could make him eligible for that penalty. Daily Herald reported that Hernandez pleaded not guilty at the April 7 arraignment. His next court date was set for May 13, and the public record had not shown a trial date as of mid-April.

The public voice in the case has come mostly from law enforcement and prosecutors, who framed Abril-Hernandez as a mother, sister and daughter whose family lost her in a violent act. State’s Attorney Robert Berlin offered condolences to her relatives and called the allegations especially troubling because Hernandez was already under court restrictions. Sheriff James Mendrick praised deputies and state police for locating the suspect less than seven hours after the missing-person call. Missing from the public record, at least so far, are fuller accounts from family members, neighbors or defense counsel beyond the not-guilty plea. What is clear is that the case moved from concern over a missing woman to a homicide prosecution before daybreak, and it now heads toward another court hearing in DuPage County.

The case stood, as of April 16, with Hernandez jailed in DuPage County, charged in the death of Abril-Hernandez and due back in court on May 13, when the next major public update is expected.

Author note: Last updated April 16, 2026.