Teen once subject of Amber Alert headed to prison for setting up man she met online to be murdered and robbed

Natalie Navarro, Yordy Martinez and Arturo Pena

Left: Natalie Navarro. Right: Yordy Martinez (Dallas County Jail). Inset: Arturo Pena (Laurel Oaks Funeral Home).

Cops in Texas first thought Natalie Navarro, then 17, was the victim of a kidnapping after they found a man shot to death in August 2023 in the Dallas suburb of Garland. But after issuing an Amber Alert, police learned she was no victim but a suspect complicit in robbery and murder.

More than a year later, Navarro, now 19, pleaded guilty to murder in the death of 21-year-old Arturo Peña and a judge sentenced her to 40 years in prison with 485 days credit for time served, according to court records.

Garland cops were dispatched just after 10 a.m. on Aug. 29, 2023, to the 300 block of West Oates Road in Audubon Park, according to a press statement. The call was about a man possibly passed out in a vehicle. But officers arrived to find that he had suffered a gunshot wound.

More on Law&Crime: ‘I wonder what your expiration date is’: 2 men arrested for allegedly plotting a chilling and complex kidnapping, rape and murder scheme targeting an ex-girlfriend

As Law&Crime previously reported, Detectives identified the victim as Peña, a resident of Mesquite. He had been reported as missing to Dallas cops two days earlier. It turns out he was the victim of a ruse. Peña and Navarro met online, and she lured him to the home where her boyfriend, Yordy “Jordy” Martinez, then 21, was waiting to rob him. Investigators believe Martinez shot and killed Peña during the robbery.

After finding Navarro, detectives were able to ferret out the truth and obtained murder warrants on both her and Martinez. Navarro has been in jail ever since but Martinez remains on the lam. Peña’s family voiced concern at the time Martinez could have fled to Mexico, according to local Fox affiliate KDFW. But police in Laredo, a Lone Star State city on the Mexican border some 450 miles southwest from the scene of the murder, said in March that Martinez may be in the area.

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