The mother of a Houston 12-year-old who police say was strangled and thrown off a bridge by two illegal immigrants revealed the heartbreaking timeline of her daughter's final moments in congressional testimony Tuesday, slamming the Biden-Harris administration border policy that allows violent criminals to "openly" enter the U.S. and wreak havoc on citizens.
Alexis Nungaray told the House Judiciary Committee that her last words to her daughter Jocelyn were "goodnight," and "I love you." She woke up to a horror.
"She was there when I closed my eyes that night," Nungaray said. "That Monday morning, when I opened my eyes, she was gone."
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Jocelyn went out to buy a soda at a convenience store nearby after her mother went to bed. Two Venezuelan predators allegedly abducted and killed her, then threw her off a bridge because they thought running water would hide their DNA.
"That Monday morning, June 17th, was terrifying," Nungaray testified. "Waking up to know your child was missing and frantically searching the area where her phone was being pinged just two minutes away from her home, driving up to that exact location to see crime scene tape and officers by a bridge."
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At the scene, officers couldn't provide answers, she said. But 45 minutes later, she received a phone call from police, asking her to come downtown.
"I'm still hanging on to hope that my 12-year-old daughter is still somewhere out there," she said. "They bring me to the floor labeled Homicide Division."
Detectives asked her about the prior evening, then revealed they had recovered a body that they believed belonged to her daughter. Police found Jocelyn naked from the waist down, with her wrists and ankles tied up. Investigators said she'd been strangled.
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"My heart shattered," Nungaray said. "I couldn't believe what was just told to me."
She said she couldn't imagine the horror her daughter went through in her final moments.
"They saw a young girl, my daughter Jocelyn, and placed a target on her without her even knowing," she said. "They were seen on video at 12:57 a.m. on June 17th, walking across the street down by the bayou under the bridge, at 3:04, for only the two illegal immigrants emerged. They were down there for two whole hours. I can't even fathom what was going through Jocelyn's mind, the amount of fear she was feeling in the last moments of her life."
Two Venezuelan men, Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel, 21, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, have been charged with her murder. Both of them had been captured but released into the American interior earlier this year – one just weeks before Jocelyn's murder.
One of the suspects allegedly confessed to having done "something bad," Nungaray said. Both allegedly asked their boss for money in a failed bid to skip town.
"Individuals like that do not have a heart," Nungaray said. "They are nothing but monsters who are predators, and those are the kind of individuals that we so openly let in this country."
The mourning mother joined other victims' families to testify at the hearing in their quest to close the border to illegal immigration and persuade the government to crack down on migrant crime.
"Because of the Biden-Harris administration open border policies, catch and release, they were enrolled in the Alternatives to Detention program," Nungaray told lawmakers. "This meant that they were released into the United States. It was not even a full three weeks later that they would take my daughter Jocelyn Nungaray’s life."
