Police on Thursday arrested two men after a 12-year-old girl was found strangled to death in a shallow creek in north Houston on Monday.
Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel, 22, and Franklin Pena, 26, face capital murder charges in the death of Jocelyn Nungaray. They were arrested Thursday at their shared apartment near the area where Jocelyn’s body was found.
Alexis Nungaray, Jocelyn’s mother, told KRIV on Thursday that hearing that the men had been detained “was like the greatest news to hear this morning, to be wakened up with.”
“It still doesn’t register,” she said of her daughter’s death. “I can’t believe it’s her, it will take some sinking in.”
Police said that surveillance footage showed Martinez-Rangel and Pena at a restaurant on Sunday evening, a few hours before they met with Jocelyn.
They walked together to a convenience store and then to a bridge where police say Jocelyn was murdered.
Houston Police Lt. Stephen Hope said investigators found evidence connected with the killing at Martinez-Rangel and Pena’s apartment, although he declined to elaborate.
“We’ve worked really, really hard to get to this point, but a mountain of work stands before us to be able to document and look through everything that we have left,” he said Thursday.
Police believe the incident took place over a few hours, with Jocelyn meeting Martinez-Rangel and Pena and chatting with them around midnight.
