A Los Angeles man allegedly murdered his wife and dismembered her body because she had a difficult time losing weight after giving birth to his child.
Jonathan Renteria, 25, confessed in a handwritten letter to killing his 37-year-old wife, June Renteria, according to a criminal complaint.
‘My wife, June Renteria, is deceased in her apartment. I kill her. I am truly sorry.’
On Sept. 11, the man was found “inside a hotel room in Ventura County lying in a bathtub bleeding from a puncture wound to his forearm” at about 12:30 p.m., according to prosecutors.
A note was found in the room reading, “My wife, June Renteria, is deceased in her apartment. I kill her. I am truly sorry,” with an address in Hollywood written on the back.
Police were sent to the apartment address on a welfare check and reported a “foul” odor emanating from the door.
Once they gained entry into the residence, they discovered his wife “in a state of decomposition with her arms and legs severed.”
Security video obtained by police showed the man leaving the apartment with the couple’s 1-year-old child about five days before he was found bleeding in Ventura.
Jonathan Renteria was treated at a hospital and then interviewed by police. He allegedly confessed to the crime and told investigators that he had gotten into an argument with his wife “about her failure to lose weight following her pregnancy.”
He said his wife threatened to leave him and ensure he never saw his daughter again. He reacted by getting her into a “rear-naked chokehold,” which he learned in jiujitsu. That admission corroborated a medical examiner’s finding that she had died from “traumatic neck injuries.”
Prosecutors also claimed that he had sent an email to his father confessing to the crimes.
“The only thing I could do in the moment was choke her. And I did. I held it for as long as I could until my arms gave out. I was horrified at myself. Right after this I took a lot of drugs to get through it,” he allegedly wrote.
Jonathan Renteria was arrested and charged with murder and the mutilation of human remains. His bail was set at $4,000,000.
The suspect met the victim on social media, and she moved to the United States from Scotland to be with him.
A GoFundMe page set up for the family of June Bunyan, the maiden name for June Renteria, said that she had been proud of earning a law degree and had moved to the U.S. in pursuit of becoming a defense attorney.
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