Authorities say messages sent after Estefania Abril-Hernandez’s death became part of the evidence trail against her estranged husband.
WHEATON, Ill. — Prosecutors in DuPage County say their murder case against Brian C. Hernandez is built around a blunt chain of evidence that includes a missing-person report, a predawn interstate traffic stop, a body in a vacant home and messages they say he sent after the killing.
Those pieces matter because they form the public narrative of how investigators moved from suspicion to charges. Hernandez, 28, was first charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the death of his estranged wife, 24-year-old Estefania Abril-Hernandez. Prosecutors later expanded that to five counts and sought a possible natural life sentence if he is convicted. At the center of the case, as described by prosecutors, are not only the allegations of strangulation but the sequence of facts that they say ties Hernandez to the death within hours.
The most striking evidence disclosed so far is digital. During the investigation, prosecutors said, authorities found messages Hernandez allegedly sent to another individual after the killing. One message said he had something to confess. Another said he was pretty sure Estefania was dead. Those statements have become the most quoted part of the case because they appear to show immediate awareness of what prosecutors say had happened inside the former home. Still, the public record leaves gaps. Officials have not named the recipient, have not said whether the person responded, and have not publicly described whether investigators recovered additional messages, call logs or location data that could place the sender and the victim together at specific times on March 18.
The next layer is physical movement. Abril-Hernandez’s family reported her missing at about 8 p.m. on March 18, according to prosecutors. About 2:45 a.m. on March 19, state police stopped her vehicle on I-80 and found Hernandez driving it, authorities said. They also said he had her cellphone. That stop did not end the investigation. Instead, it appears to have sharpened it. Investigators went to the couple’s vacant former residence near Villa Park and, just before 4 a.m., entered through an unlocked window. In a second-floor bedroom, they found Abril-Hernandez dead on a bed with a vacuum power cord around her neck, prosecutors said.
Then comes the prosecution’s theory of what happened before the evidence trail scattered outward. Authorities say Hernandez and Abril-Hernandez had gone to the Ingersoll Road property to clean and gather belongings ahead of a foreclosure auction set for the next day. There, prosecutors allege, an argument turned physical and Hernandez strangled her, wrapping the cord around her neck more than nine times before leaving. Later reporting added that prosecutors said Hernandez accused Abril-Hernandez of infidelity. No public filing summarized in news reports has yet laid out a minute-by-minute reconstruction of the encounter, and officials have not publicly described whether forensic testing on the cord, bedding or room produced additional evidence.
The remaining evidence in public view concerns status and access. Prosecutors say Hernandez was under an order of protection tied to a 2025 misdemeanor domestic violence-related case and was on pretrial release at the time of Abril-Hernandez’s death. That earlier case, according to later court reporting, involved allegations that he interfered with her effort to call 911 and blocked her from leaving. Prosecutors also said he had an active failure-to-appear warrant. Those facts do not prove the homicide allegation by themselves, but they help explain why prosecutors have framed the new case as one that carries both evidentiary weight and legal aggravation. On April 7, they moved to seek a natural life sentence if Hernandez is convicted.
In court, the prosecution’s public showing has moved faster than the defense case has emerged. Judge Joshua Dieden denied pretrial release on March 23. Hernandez later pleaded not guilty, according to Daily Herald, and the next hearing was set for May 13. For now, the evidence story remains one-sided in public: the state has outlined texts, a car stop, a scene and prior court restrictions, while broader defense arguments have not yet been aired in detail. The next phase is likely to test whether that early narrative holds up as discovery, motions and courtroom scrutiny bring more records into view.
Prosecutors had their defendant in custody as of April 16, with their case theory on the record and their next major court date set for May 13.
Author note: Last updated April 16, 2026.