The family of a 12-year-old girl is mourning after she was allegedly assaulted and strangled to death by two men who were in the country illegally. Twelve-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray snuck out of her Houston apartment, allegedly lured by the two suspects, Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, and Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21. Surveillance footage recovered by officials reportedly shows Ramos, Martinez, and Nungaray in a local convenience store. The three later walked to a bridge, where the two men allegedly bound Nungaray, stripped her naked from the waist down, assaulted her for two hours, and then strangled her to death. The pair then returned to their apartment complex, leaving her body behind. Nungaray’s body was spotted the next day by a Houston resident. Billie Jackson was driving home when she spotted something from the road. “I drove past, and when I looked up the creek, I thought it was a mannequin. I did a U-turn, and I stopped on the bridge, put my flashers on, looked down, and realized it was someone. I parked right here and called 911 immediately,” she told a local station.
The men were identified and located using local surveillance footage. Both men have been charged with capital murder. Pena Ramos was held on $10 million bond during a recent hearing, with plans to ask for the same amount to be set for Rangel Martinez. Both men crossed the US border illegally from Venezuela according to a spokesman form Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “Martinez and Pena both illegally entered the U.S. without inspection, parole or admission by a U.S. immigration officer on an unknown date and at an unknown location,” said the spokesman in a statement. Further reports show that Pena Ramos had been detained by border patrol agents in El Paso on May 28th and that Rangel Martinez had been detained on the 14th. Both men were later released and given dates to appear in court.
Nungaray’s mother, Alexis Nungaray, who was herself just 15 years old when she had Jocelyn, called the men “monsters,” after Pena Ramos’s hearing. “She had such a bright future ahead of her and I knew she was going to go very far. And these monsters took that opportunity from her, from our family of watching her.” She later thanked the support she has received. “I still see her face in the back of my head every day, all day. I keep getting little signs about her throughout the days. It’s been a very, very hard time for me and my family but the amount of support I’ve been getting from everybody, it’s from the bottom of my heart so appreciated.”
Nungaray’s is just the latest in a string of high-profile murders by illegal immigrants. 22-year-old college student Laken Riley was allegedly murdered while she was running by illegal Venezuelan national Jose Antonio Ibarra in Georgia. Her death spewed a slew of criticism towards President Joe Biden, whom many opponents claim is letting unprecedented numbers of illegal immigrants cross the border. A man recently arrested for the 2023 murder of Rachel Morin, Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, is also allegedly in the country illegally from El Salvador. He is also wanted in relation to a robbery where a 9-year-old girl was assaulted. Nungaray’s funeral will be held Thursday.