ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill. (WLS) — A suburban man has now been charged with murder in the death of his ex-girlfriend, whose body was found in a forest preserve in the north suburbs last year.

Juan Pio Toto previously faced “concealment of death” charges after his former girlfriend’s body was found in Busse Woods back in November. The suspect told police him and the mother of his two children were arguing here outside of their apartment when somehow she fell, hit her head on the ground and died, but now prosecutors say she was murdered.

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Atalia Pucheta Martinez, 23, was found dead on Nov. 9. She had been missing from Mount Prospect.

Mount Prospect police said her ex-boyfriend, Pio Toto, allegedly drove to a wooded area and left Martinez’s body there.

Court documents showed that Pio Toto failed to show up in court last month, and a warrant for his arrest was then issued.

A shine honors the memory of Martinez at the home she once lived in with her family. An emptiness continues to swell within the apartment walls after, police say, she was murdered just outside of the family’s window.

Her brother, Jose Luis Pucheta Martinez, spoke Friday with ABC7 in Spanish, through his tears.

“She’ll always be in my mind because I miss her,” he said. “She would come home, and she would offer me food. Every time I needed something from her, she would always help.”

Pio Toto was arrested two days after her body was found.

They had a discussion, and she sent him back home,” Jose Luis Pucheta Martinez said.

Police say that encounter turned deadly. The murder charge is new development in the case, yet for her family, it just opens old wounds.

“When the police told me, I didn’t know how to take it because they were a couple,” Jose Luis Pucheta Martinez said. “They said it was him. I never thought it would go there.”

Atalia Pucheta Martinez’s family told ABC7she was laid to rest in her native Mexico, where her two children are now living with their father’s family.

Pio Toto appeared in court Wednesday and will stay behind bars until his next court date March 24, officials said.