Teen Girl Killed With Machete In MD Woods In MS-13 Hit, Officials Say

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — A woman has been found guilty after she helped kidnap and murder a Montgomery County teen in 2023. The killing was committed under orders of the MS-13 gang, prosecutors said.

Iris Alonzo-Salgado, 24, of Frederick, was recently convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and participating in a criminal organization resulting in death in connection with the death of Rosa Sanchez Merino, the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office announced.

Alonzo-Salgado is one of four co-defendants who were charged in the death of Merino. She was convicted in a Montgomery County Circuit Court bench trial on Nov. 14 after she chose to waive a jury trial.

Alonzo-Salgado now faces two life sentences and an additional 25 years in prison at her sentencing scheduled for Jan. 21, 2026.

According to prosecutors, in May 2023, two of the defendants, Alonzo-Salgado and Roberto Rivera-Delgado, took Sanchez Merino with them to New Jersey while they were on a trip to visit people in the Tri-State area.

Sanchez Merino knew both of them before the trip and paid Rivera-Delgado for the ride to New Jersey to visit family.

One night, they left her in New Jersey with her family while they went to New York to spend time with another of the defendants, Aracely Abarca-Melgar. The group of three then went back to New Jersey and picked Sanchez Merino up before taking her back with them to Maryland.

When the group arrived in Olney, they walked Sanchez Merino into the woods and "gagged her mouth," authorities said. She was then forced to kneel on the ground as they stabbed her to death with a machete.

Her body was then left in a "freshly dug grave," prosecutors said.

On Sept. 30, 2023, Roberto Rivera-Delgado, one of the co-defendants, led Montgomery County police to a wooded area along Brookeville Road in Olney. He revealed the shallow grave that contained the girl's skeletal remains.

Rivera-Delgado pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and participating in a criminal organization resulting in death. He has yet to be sentenced.

Aracely Abarca-Melgar, the third co-defendant, is awaiting trial. The fourth co-defendant's identity and case details are being withheld due to their age.