Missing Colombian cleaner from east London ‘killed by lover colleague and hidden in wheelie bin’
10 June 2025, 13:33 | Updated: 10 June 2025, 13:36
A missing woman who was found dead at a rural spot in Hampshire was allegedly killed by a work colleague and wheeled out of an office block in a wheelie bin, a court has heard.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Cleaner Yajaira Castro Mendez, 46, had allegedly previously been in a relationship with married Juan Francisco Toledo, who is accused of her murder.
She was reported missing to the Metropolitan Police on May 31, having left her home in Ilford, east London, on the morning of May 29.
Following a police search, her body was found in the Bolderwood area of Hampshire on Saturday.
Read more: Ten dead as ‘bullied’ former pupil, 22, goes on shooting rampage at Austrian school
Read more: British couple charged with trying to smuggle 51kg of cannabis into UK in their luggage
At a hearing on Tuesday, prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC alleged that Toledo had killed the Colombian national on the evening of May 29 at an office where they were working in central London's legal district.
She told the court: "The defendant was Ms Mendez's work colleague. They were both cleaning staff at an office building on Grays Inn Road and they had been in recent history in a relationship and on the day of her death they were both at work."
Ms Mendez arrived for work at 5pm and was fatally injured inside the office block, it was alleged.
Mr Carberry claimed that just after 8.30pm, her body was removed from the office in a wheelie bin.
The defendant allegedly then placed the body in his car and drove to Hampshire where the body was dumped.
Ms Mendez's former flatmate had raised the alarm after she failed to move into new accommodation, the court was told.
A post-mortem examination to determine the cause of her death was ongoing in Winchester.
Venezuelan national Toledo, 51, of Crystal Palace, south London, was arrested on June 4 and subsequently charged with murder.
On Tuesday, the defendant appeared at the Old Bailey before Judge Mark Lucraft KC for a preliminary hearing.
A plea hearing was set for September 1 with a provisional trial from April 20 2026.
The defendant, who was assisted by a Spanish interpreter, was remanded into custody.
Ms Mendez's disappearance was initially treated as a missing person investigation led by local officers but the investigation was transferred to the Met's Specialist Crime Command on June 5, after a range of extensive further inquiries suggested she had come to harm.
