Two illegal immigrants from Venezuela have been arrested and charged in connection with the murder of a 12-year-old Texas girl who was found strangled to death in a creek near her Houston home.
THE TWO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Johan Jose Martinez Rangel, 22, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, ‘both illegally entered the U.S. without inspection, parole or admission by a U.S. immigration officer.’
Franklin, 26, was fitted with a GPS ankle monitor by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent after he crossed at El Paso in Texas on May 28 but had cut it off by the time the pair were arrested for killing Jocelyn Nungaray.
Johan, 21, was also released after being intercepted by border agents on March 14.
The men were arrested again on Thursday, June 20, after police found the body of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray.
HER DEAD BODY WAS FOUND
The Houston Police Department said Nungaray’s body was discovered in a shallow creek around 6:15 a.m. on Monday.
‘It was a horrible scene,’ Houston’s Acting Chief of Police Larry Satterwhite said during a news conference Thursday afternoon.
HOW SHE WAS ABDUCTED
Investigators learned the suspects had dinner together the night of the murder, which was Sunday. After their meal, they left the restaurant and began walking in the area.
They were later seen meeting with Nungaray and talking to her for a few minutes.
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Later, Rangel Martinez and Pena Ramos, along with Jocelyn, walked to a 7-Eleven convenience store.
Afterward, the three of them walked to a bridge, where investigators said Nungaray was murdered.
Rangel Martinez and Pena Ramos then walked to the apartment they shared and left the girl’s body behind, police said.
Authorities said an investigation by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences ruled the girl’s cause of death as strangulation.
They could not confirm if the girl was sexually assaulted.
