The sister of a bride found stabbed to death in her wedding party dress claims the groom called a relative on the day the body was found and said he left her bleeding after a "bad fight."

Estrella Carrera, 26, of Burbank, Ill., was found fatally stabbed on Sunday in her bathtub, clad in the silver sequin cocktail dress she wore at her wedding reception and possibly at the wedding itself. 

Police are now hunting for the woman's husband, 30-year-old Arnoldo Jimenez, who is wanted on a first-degree murder warrant in Carrera's death. 

Carrera's sister, Jazmin, said a sister of Jimenez' told the victim's family about the alleged phone call on Sunday. She claims that Jimenez was crying and nervous during the call. 

The Burbank Police Department said Wednesday that it is aware of a relative's account of the phone call from Jimenez and that it is part of their investigation. 

"It was a very brutal killing," Capt. Joseph Ford of the Burbank Police Department told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "We do our jobs every day, of course. But something like this really motivates you to work even harder."

After the couple were married Friday afternoon at Chicago's City Hall, they had dinner with friends at a restaurant, then headed to a nightclub in a party limousine. They were last seen at 4 a.m. Saturday, and Carrera's body was found Sunday in her apartment in Burbank, a suburb of Chicago. 

The 6-foot, 220-pound Jimenez was last known to be driving a 2006 black Maserati. Since the killing likely took place just hours after the couple went to the bride's Burbank apartment, the suspect had a day to leave the metropolitan area or even the state, Ford said.

Carrera, a mother of two small children, told nearly no one about her plans to get married, inviting a few friends out Friday without telling them what she was celebrating, her relatives said. Her body was found after family members became worried they had not heard from her and called police.

Some of those familiar with the couple said there had been incidents of violence during their two years dating, Ford said. But he added that authorities haven't yet found any records indicating Carrera ever filed a complaint against Jimenez.

"And we have no indications the two were arguing at any time during the (Friday and early Saturday) celebration," Ford said.

Carrera's family and acquaintances were struggling to comprehend how such a tragedy could happen during what should have been among the happiest days of the couple's lives.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Â