A Texas man admitted to killing his ex-girlfriend after she broke up with him and hiding her corpse in her own coffee table.
The Midland County District Attorney’s Office announced that Mario Juan Chacon pleaded guilty on Friday, February 20, to one count of murder and one count of tampering with evidence in connection to the 2023 death of 20-year-old Madeline Pantoja, according to Law & Crime.
After he entered his plea, Chacon, 27, was sentenced to serve 35 years in prison for the murder count and 20 years in prison for the tampering count. District Court Judge David G. Roger determined that the sentences would run concurrently — or at the same time.
Chacon killed Pantoja on May 10, 2023. After many of her loved ones noticed that they had not heard from her, they went to law enforcement to report her missing. Several people told authorities that they spoke to her that day. Meanwhile, the final person to talk to Pantoja was a friend she was making plans with to go swimming at their apartment complex the next day, according to KWES.
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After several of Pantoja’s friends called her and didn’t get answers, they went to her apartment at the Palladium Museum Place complex in Midland, Texas, and got no answer.
The Midland Police Department officers were later dispatched to the apartment on May 11, 2023, in response to a welfare check requested by the victim’s brother. However, they left when they received no response.
One day later, someone called 911 claiming they heard a woman’s voice coming from inside the apartment. The officers returned to the apartment and got in, though they did not find anyone.
Officers said they found a mop and a dirty bucket of water near the front door, while they also noted in the arrest affidavit that the floor was “extremely sticky as it is when too much cleaning product is used when mopping the floor.”
Additionally, police said that her dog was left without food or water and there were holes in the bathroom and bedroom doors.
When Chacon first spoke with police, he said he last saw Pantoja on May 9, 2023, and they had their final phone call on May 10, 2023. However, he later told authorities that he forgot to mention he met up with a cousin the night Pantoja went missing. He said that the cousin lived in the same apartment complex as Pantoja, according to the affidavit.
Chacon said he dropped his cousin off at his apartment and went home around 11 p.m. However, footage from a nearby oil company captured Chacon’s pickup truck near the apartment complex just before 2 a.m.
Law enforcement was able to track Chacon’s movements on the night in question through traffic cameras, private surveillance footage and cellphone location data. Around 3:22 a.m, one caught Chacon near South County Road 1160.
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Chacon was interviewed a third time on May 18, 2023, where detectives said they “found lies in his timeline.”
On May 20, 2023, Texas Rangers set out on a search in the “approximate one-mile area around East County Road 190 and South County Road 1138 in Midland County,” according to the affidavit. They found human remains and confirmed it was Pantoja based on jewelry, according to police. Meanwhile, a source close to the investigation said that Pantoja’s body was found inside a coffee table that was missing from her apartment.
Chacon was subsequently arrested and charged that same day. He was formally indicted for the murder on July 19, 2023, while he was indicted on the tampering charge on November 19, 2025.
The Midland County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to Us Weekly’s request for comment.
