Fidel Lopez’s Crime Scene: Maria Nemeth’s Murder, 911 Call, Sentence

The Fidel Lopez crime scene was a Sunrise, Florida, apartment where, in the early hours of September 20, 2015, officers found 31-year-old Maria Nemeth dead and mutilated on the bathroom floor after Lopez called 911. Lopez, then 24, later confessed to killing her, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and sexual battery in July 2017, and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

What Officers Found Inside the Apartment

The apartment was at 11630 Northwest 128th Drive, Apartment 308. Lopez and Nemeth had been living there together for only about a week.¹

When officers came in, Lopez was crying in the bathroom next to Nemeth’s naked body.² She was on the floor, surrounded by blood and bodily tissue. The damage extended through the apartment. Blood covered the walls of both the closet and the bathroom. A closet door had been ripped from its frame and was lying in the hallway. The rear sliding glass door was shattered, with broken glass on the floor. There were holes punched in the drywall. In the kitchen, officers documented an open bottle of tequila with sliced limes.¹ The closet, where the couple had been together, held a large concentration of blood.³

Neighbors reported hearing a man yelling and loud noises coming from the apartment for roughly two hours before police arrived.⁴

The 911 Call and What Lopez Did Before Police Arrived

Lopez called 911 just after 3:30 a.m. “She’s not breathing. She’s not breathing. She’s gonna die. She’s not breathing. Send the ambulance,” he told the dispatcher.¹

Before the call, Lopez had splashed water on Nemeth’s face in the bathroom in an attempt to revive her. When she did not respond, he washed the blood off his hands, stepped outside to smoke, and tried to hide bloody tissue.⁵

How the Scene Came to Be, According to Lopez

Sunrise Police detectives questioned Lopez for hours.⁶ He first told them he and Nemeth had been drinking and having “rough sex,” that she felt ill and went to the bathroom, and that he called 911 when she stopped responding. He denied hurting her and called her his “love” and a “perfect girl.”

He acknowledged the destruction in the apartment but said he could not remember causing it. “I just remember seeing glass on the floor, I really don’t remember when I break it, or why I break it,” he told detectives.⁷

Later in the interrogation, Lopez dropped the rough-sex account and confessed. He said he and Nemeth had been drinking tequila and were together in the closet when she called him by her ex-husband’s name twice. He said he “became a monster” after hearing the name.⁶ “She called me the name of the other guy. 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 mad.”⁸

Lopez admitted inserting a beer bottle and a hair flat iron into Nemeth, and inserting his arm into her body “all the way up to his elbow,” pulling out internal tissue, including intestinal matter.⁹ Shown crime scene photographs, he said his mind “blocks out.” “I wasn’t thinking, man. I wasn’t thinking.”⁶

In later phone calls from the Broward County Jail, released by prosecutors, Lopez told a family member he was being “haunted” by Nemeth’s death. “Each time that I close my eyes, I have that in mind.”⁶

Charges, Plea, and Sentence

Lopez was charged with first-degree murder and sexual battery and held without bond in the Broward County Jail. He initially pleaded not guilty.¹ Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty. In July 2017, he changed his plea to guilty on both counts. Under the agreement, he received life in prison without parole, avoided the death penalty, and waived his right to appeal.¹⁰

Sentencing was on August 3, 2017, in Fort Lauderdale before Broward Circuit Judge Ilona Holmes. Nemeth’s uncle read a letter for the family, saying “only God would determine his fate.”¹¹ A translator for Nemeth’s father described her as “a model of affection, effort, perseverance and love of humanity.”⁸

Speaking through a translator, Lopez told the courtroom: “Today, I’m happy to fulfill 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 His mother said the family was “devastated too.”¹² Lopez thanked Judge Holmes for sparing him the death penalty.¹¹

Maria Nemeth

Nemeth was 31. She and Lopez had known each other only briefly before moving in together.¹³ Her cousin, Nelly Cortez, described her as “very responsible” and “full of life,” saying it was “hard to understand why she got involved with a person who has these kinds of thoughts.”⁴ No prior history of domestic violence between the couple was reported in publicly available records.

1
NBC Miami. Sunrise Man Accused of Murdering, Mutilating Girlfriend
2
ABC 7 New York. Man Accused of Horrific Crime After Woman Called Out Ex’s Name During Sex
3
News.com.au. Footage Reveals Scene Where Jealous Lover Tore Out Girlfriend’s Guts
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Morbidology. The Apartment of Horrors: Maria Nemeth
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WSLS. Florida Man Sentenced to Life in Prison for Disemboweling Girlfriend
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CBS News Miami. New Information Released in Mutilation Sex Murder
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NBC Miami. Police Interrogation Tape Shows Man Charged in Horrific Murder of Girlfriend in Sunrise
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CBS News Miami. Fidel Lopez Rough Sex Murder Florida
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WRTV. Police: Man Disemboweled Girlfriend Who Said Ex’s Name During Sex
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NBC Miami. Sunrise Man Gets Life in Prison in Mutilation Murder of Girlfriend
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News4Jax. Fidel Lopez Sentenced to Life in Prison for Disemboweling Girlfriend
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ClickOrlando. Florida Man Sentenced to Life in Prison for Disemboweling Girlfriend
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Vibe. Life in Prison for Murdering Girlfriend Calling Out Ex-Husband’s Name During Sex