A married man murdered a work colleague with whom he had been having an affair and wheeled her dead body out of their office block in a wheelie bin, a court heard. The body of cleaner Yajaira Castro Mendez, 46, was found at a rural spot in Hampshire where she had been taken by Juan Francisco Toledo after being killed whilst at work in central London’s legal district last month.
Colombian national Ms Castro Mendez, 46, was reported missing to the Metropolitan Police on May 31, having left her home in Ilford, east London, on the morning of Thursday May 29. Following a huge police search, her corpse was found in the Bolderwood area of Hampshire on Saturday May 31. At a hearing on Tuesday, Caroline Carberry KC, prosecuting, alleged that Toledo had killed his former lover on the evening of May 29 at the office block where they both worked.
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 by Toledo from the office in a wheelie bin.
The defendant allegedly then placed the body in his car and drove to Hampshire where her 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.
Today 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.
