The heartbroken father of a 24-year-old Missouri woman who was found bludgeoned to death next to her 4-year-old girl in a bathtub has described how he “broke down” at the sight of his daughter’s bloody body.
Shannon Hopkins met her daughter Mackenzie’s killer for the first time since he was sentenced on Tuesday, saying he left “a lot of blood” when he arrived at her home in Kansas City on January 15, 2022. He recalled seeing it and then just walking “a few feet into the house.” before being overwhelmed by what he saw.
“I walked a few feet into her house and [police] He pulled me out.” Hopkins told KMBC on Friday. “There was a lot of blood. I collapsed in the front garden.
“I think I was thinking, ‘There’s no way they’re dead,'” he said of Mackenzie Hopkins and her baby Bella, who survived despite severe head trauma.
“‘There’s no way this could have happened, there’s no way we lost one or both,'” his father and grandfather recalled.
Jose Escalante Corchado, 32, pleaded guilty last week to second-degree murder involving MacKenzie and first-degree assault of his daughter, more than two years after the vicious attack. The Kansas City Star reported.
He was sentenced to up to 30 years in the Missouri State Penitentiary on both charges. He was scheduled for a jury trial starting April 15 before his plea was withdrawn.
Hopkins said Escalante-Corchado was the boyfriend of a friend of MacKenzie’s. Authorities have not released a motive for this heinous crime.
When officers arrived at McKenzie’s home, they found what appeared to be blood stains leading up to the front steps and the front door unlocked.
Officers found bloodstains throughout the main floor of the home. Boot prints left at the scene helped detectives link Escalante-Corchado to the crime. KMBC reported.
Surveillance video also showed a man matching the description seen near the crime scene the day of the murder fleeing the residence and getting into a white truck.
Hopkins told the media that her daughter “became an independent person when she became a mother.”
“She was caring,” he told the station. She was the most loving person.
“We must learn to live with this horrific act. [her killer] “That day changed not only our family’s life, but Bella’s life as well,” Hopkins said. “They have this dark history, and I’m sure it affected his family’s daily life.”
Bella, 6, currently lives with her father in Puerto Rico, but plans to visit family in the United States this summer.
