MESQUITE, Texas — It’s been more than a week since Garland police found Magaly Villareal’s son Artura Pena gunned down. In the time since, some of her only comforts are a handful of large photos of her son.
Villareal interviewed with WFAA in Spanish. The following quotes have been translated into English.
"They took my heart, they destroyed it, they threw it away, my life not just my life, my son’s life too," Villareal said.
Police found the 21-year-old’s body in a car in Garland’s Audabon Park, a few days after Villareal reported him missing.
“My son left home at 8:30 at night Saturday," she said. "He sent me a message and told me he was meeting with a girl.”
Affidavits identify the girl as 17-year-old Natalie Navarro. According to Garland Police, the reason Pena never made it back home is because the teen and her boyfriend, 21-year-old Yordy Martinez, set him up.
“I can't understand why so much evil towards my son, towards me, we had never seen her before in our entire life, just for a chain and 2 rings?” Villareal said.
Villareal said that when Pena first went missing, someone found and returned his phone. She made contact with Navarro after seeing her number on the call log - at one point even tracking down and cornering the teen and Martinez at a gas station in Mesquite. Villareal called police - but after questioning, they let the pair go.
But that was before police found Pena’s body. By the time they’d analyzed the crime scene and identified suspects, Navarro and Martinez were on the run.
“I'm very mad at the Mesquite Police Department because I put them in their hands and they let them go," she said.
Police found Navarro Friday in South Texas after Dallas police issued an Amber Alert. Martinez is still nowhere to be found.
“He might be in Mexico now," she said.
Villareal says, wherever he is, she won’t give up until he’s held accountable.