The Apartment of Horrors: Maria Nemeth

Just after 3:30 AM on September 20, 2015, the 911 dispatch center in Sunrise, Florida, received a frantic call from a man reporting that his girlfriend was having trouble breathing and was going to die. The caller, in a state of panic, shouted, “I don’t know, man, she’s not breathing! She’s gonna die, man! Come on, someone help her!”

Police and paramedics were immediately dispatched to the apartment on 128th Drive. Upon entering the dimly lit apartment, they were confronted with a gruesome scene. Blood smeared the hallway walls and floor, accompanied by fragments of what appeared to be human tissue, creating a grim trail leading toward the bathroom.

The officers followed the eerie sounds of wailing, growing louder as they approached. They observed that the bathroom door had been torn off its hinges. When they entered, they found 24-year-old Fidel Lopez, the caller, sprawled on the floor. He was clutching the lifeless, naked body of a woman, his tears mingling with the blood on the floor. She was identified as his 31-year-old girlfriend, Maria Nemeth.¹

As the officers approached closer, the full horror became apparent. Maria was not just dead; her intestines had been ripped out from her vagina.  

Lopez was immediately arrested at the scene, and as he was transported to the police station, detectives and forensic experts arrived on the apartment. In the bedroom, forensic experts found more evidence of violence in the form of blood and human tissue in the walk-in closet, walls and doors. There were also several holes in the walls that appeared to be caused by a fist, as well as a shattered sliding glass door. In the kitchen, they came across a half-full bottle of Tequila 1800 and cut limes, as well as signs of a physical struggle.

The couple had just moved into the apartment a week earlier, but it was evident that something had gone terribly wrong. When detectives spoke with neighbours, they said they heard a man yelling and loud noises that lasted about two hours. Lopez had previously lived in Opa-locka, where his neighbour, Ismary Suarez, said of him: “He didn’t know how to behave. He didn’t make friends with anybody.”²

Over at the police station, Lopez told detectives that he and Maria had been drinking tequila together in celebration of moving into their new apartment. He said at one point, they began having “violent” sex and Maria asked him to put a beer bottle and his fist inside her vagina. He said that he complied, and that it had been her idea and that she enjoyed it. He said afterwards, she went into the bathroom and vomited, and that he later found her in the bathroom struggling to breathe.

However, Lopez’s story didn’t correlate with the evidence found at the crime scene; Maria had obviously been killed and mutilated. One of the detectives in the interrogation room said to him: “Fidel, this was not a case of rough sex. You have to do the right thing and tell the truth.”³

Lopez eventually broke down and changed his story. He told detectives that he had become a “monster” when Maria twice said her ex-husband’s name as they were having sex in the closet. He said that after hearing another man’s name, he became furious. “She called me the name of the other fucking guy,” he said. “And she said it twice, and she was wrong and she was confusing me with him. At that point, I get mad, I get really, really, bad.”

He claimed he left Maria in the closet and then began smashing things around the apartment and punching the walls. What he said next horrified even the most seasoned detectives.

According to Lopez, he returned to the closet where Maria was now unconscious after drinking too much alcohol. He said he shoved a beer bottle, a hair straightener, and both fists up her vagina and anus adding that she was so intoxicated that she couldn’t resist. Lopez disturbingly relayed that he then rammed his arm up to the elbow in her vagina and anus, and ripped out part of her intestines. He said that he then carried Maria into the bathroom and poured water on her face, but she never regained consciousness.⁴

After realising that Maria was dead, Lopez said he then washed his hands in the bathroom before he went outside to call police. It was at this moment that he began to panic. He attempted to clean up the apartment, and then decided to finally call 911.

After the confession, Lopez was charged with first-degree murder. During his brief court hearing, he said in Spanish: “I was drunk, intoxicated. My mind was not like that.” Judge Stephen Zaccor interrupted, and warned Lopez not to speak about facts of the case, before he turned his microphone off.

 As details of the murder spread across the media, people were horrified. Maria’s cousin, Nelly Cortez, commented: “I still cannot, I can’t process it. Maria was very responsible. It’s very hard to understand why she got involved with a person who has these kinds of thoughts.” She described her cousin as a beautiful young woman who was “full of life” and very close to her family.⁵

Maria was a native of Peru who had immigrated to Miami-Dade county as a teenager, where, she quickly learned English. She had previously worked retail jobs and at medical offices, but at the time of her death, she was working as the leasing manager at the apartment complex where she and Lopez had lived for just a week. As for Lopez, he was born in Havana and came to the United States to join his father when he was a teenager.

In October, Lopez returned to court where he pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder of Maria. He was assigned a new defence attorney after his original one withdrew himself from the case.⁶ The judge then sentenced his trial for February of 2018. His defence attorney, Melisa McNeill, commented in the media: “We’re ready for trial.”⁷

In July, however, Fidel Lopez changed his plea and instead pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Maria Nemeth. During the sentencing phase, Maria’s uncle read aloud a letter on behalf of the family. He said that only God would determine Lopez’s fate. Lopez was given the opportunity to speak, and he begged Maria’s family for forgiveness. He stated: “Today, I am happy to fulfil this conviction. I know that what I did has to be paid and I agree. I will pay with my life for the life I took. To Maria’s family, I ask forgiveness.”⁸

As part of the plea agreement, Lopez couldn’t be sentenced to death, and he thanked the judge for sparing him the death penalty.⁹ Judge Ilona Holmes then sentenced Lopez to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

1. Associated Press, 21 September, 2015 – “Man Kills Woman for Yelling Out Ex’s Name”
2. Sun Sentinel, 26 September, 2015 – “Suspect in Grisly Murder ‘Didn’t Make Friends with Anybody’”
3. The Daily Mirror, 9 September, 2016 – “Man Admits Becoming a ‘Monster’ and Ripping out Girlfriend’s Intestines”
4. El Nuevo Herald, 21 September, 2015 – “Man Guts Girlfriend”
5. Sun Sentinel, 23 September, 2015 – “Police Release 911 Tape in Grisly Killing”
6. Broward-Palm Beach New Times, 19 October, 2015 – “Sunrise Man Who Disembowelled Girlfriend Pleads Not Guilty”
7. Sun Sentinel, 2 February, 2017 – “Speedy Trial Demand”
8. The Independent, 4 August, 2017 – “Man Who Ripped out Girlfriend’s Intestines”
9. NBC – 10 WSLS, 3 August, 2017 – “Florida Man Sentenced to Life in Prison”