LATEST JAN. 9: 24-year-old Salvador Gonzalez has been arrested in connection to Diana Rios' death.
He faces charges of open murder, domestic battery and coercion with force or the threat of force.
He is expected to be in court Jan. 20.
UPDATE: Melissa Macias thought she would be planning her granddaughter's first birthday party this week. Instead she is planning her own daughter's funeral.
24-year-old Diana Rios was found murdered inside a vacant apartment earlier this week.
Macias said she feels "anger, sadness, despair, helplessness."
Rios was a "wonderful mother," Macias said, adding all she talked about were her kids.
Rios' 3-year-old son is wondering where his mother is.
"I don't know how I would explain to a 3-year-old that his mommy's gone," Macias said.
The killer didn't just murder a loving mom, Macias said, but destroyed a part of her as well.
"They took half of me with her," Macias said.
She wants the killer to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
ORIGINAL STORY
LAS VEGAS (KTNV) -- A body was discovered Monday at an apartment complex on Silver Dollar Avenue near Pennwood Avenue and Valley View Boulevard.
The death was reported at 4:32 p.m.
A woman was found unresponsive in a vacant apartment. Arriving officers located a woman inside of the apartment who was deceased from possible strangulation.
Homicide detectives determined the apartment was vacant and undergoing renovation. A contractor who had been working on the apartment since that morning came out of a side room in the afternoon and noticed another man in the hallway of the apartment. The man left the apartment as soon as he was seen by the contractor. The contractor then found the deceased female, and management immediately notified police.
It was later determined the deceased woman was seen entering the apartment with a man about 45 minutes prior to being discovered in a back room.
Just a few minutes before, neighbors said they had watched as she walked into the vacant unit alongside a man wearing a hood.
"Me and my friend go inside the apartment," said neighbor Eduardo Torres.
Torres said the woman had already passed away.
A witness tells @KTNV a woman voluntary walked into a vacant apt alongside a man -- 15 min before her body was found. pic.twitter.com/J2M9PpBNL2
— Mahsa Saeidi (@MahsaKTNV) December 28, 2016
The man could only be described as a Hispanic male in his 20s who was last seen wearing a black hat, black shirt, gray hooded jacket and tan pants.
Neighbors tell 13 Action News they didn't recognize the man or the woman. They said they're living on edge until the perpetrator is caught.
This is the 164th homicide investigated by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in 2016.
The identity of the victim, as well as the cause and manner of death, will be released by the Clark County Coroner’s Office.
The family of the woman killed identified her as 24-year-old Diana Rios. They told 13 Action News that she was 20 weeks pregnant and also had a 3-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter -- whose birthday was Wednesday.
A GoFundMe has been set up for Rios and her surviving family.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555.
