They fought back: Cases of American women murdered by men illegally in country

Through painstaking work of police investigators and prosecutors, and voicemail recordings used as evidence, recent cases reveal that American women and girls raped and murdered by foreign nationals illegally in the U.S. fought back against their attackers, struggling for their lives before they were overpowered, violently assaulted and killed.

They did not die peacefully. They were terrified, evidence shows. They clawed, scratched and bit their attackers. Some called for help. And for those who left a voicemail, their struggle and last breath were forever captured on a recording.

They were attacked when they were alone. They suffered and gasped for air as they were strangled. They struggled against the man or men who eventually overpowered and brutally assaulted them. Their bodies were left like garbage, their mothers have said.

They were attacked in their homes or along trails familiar to them that was part of their daily lives. They were given no warning that a criminal had traveled thousands of miles from a foreign land, was released into their country by their own government or evaded capture, and came to their neighborhood and weren’t supposed to be anywhere near them.

On July 27, 2022, Kayla Hamilton’s boyfriend found her body in her Aberdeen, Md., mobile home. Twenty years old and autistic, she was raped, tied up and strangled with a phone cord. Before she died, she fought back and called her boyfriend, leaving a voicemail on his phone.

The recording of her attack and last breath was played in court as evidence in a trial against her killer, an El Salvadoran MS-13 gang member who illegally entered the U.S. in March 2022. He illegally entered claiming to be an unaccompanied alien child (UAC) and was released into the U.S. by the U.S. Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, which oversee the UAC program. Four months later, he brutally murdered Kayla.

In August, he was found guilty and sentenced to 70 years in prison. He also confessed to committing four murders, two rapes and additional crimes in El Salvador prior to illegally entering the U.S.

Kayla’s mother, who’s repeatedly testified before Congress, filed a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit against DHS and HHS, alleging agents were negligent when they released the UAC with MS-13 tattoos into the country.

On Aug. 6, 2023, 37-year-old Rachel Morin, a mother of five, of Bel Air, Md., was allegedly attacked and pulled through a wooded area along a trail before she was raped and murdered, her body left in a drainage culvert. Her alleged murderer, a Salvadoran national and MS-13 gang member, illegally entered the U.S. multiple times. After a 10-month investigation, DNA evidence from the scene was connected to another crime in California, where a 9-year-old girl had been assaulted. DNA evidence enabled law enforcement to identify her alleged killer and track him down in Oklahoma, where he was arrested.

Prior to illegally entering the U.S., he allegedly murdered a young woman in El Salvador, The Center Square reported. The trial is scheduled for April 1, 2025, where the prosecution is seeking life in prison without parole.

On Feb. 22, 2024, 22-year-old Laken Riley was jogging on her university campus when she was attacked. She called 911, unable to speak, but the recording captured her attack. The recording was played in court, where jurors heard a struggle for 18 minutes. Riley fought for her life, was struck on the head, and was eventually suffocated. She was murdered by a Venezuelan man who illegally entered the country in 2022, and instead of being deported, was released into the country by the Biden administration through a parole program.

Last month, a jury found him guilty on 10 charges, including murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, among others, and sentenced him to life in prison without parole.

On June 17, 2024, 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray’s body was found in a bayou under a bridge in north Houston. The cause of death was strangulation. Her body was found bound, without clothing from the waist down.

Her alleged murderers were two Venezuelan men who illegally entered the country and were released by the Biden administration.

Jocelyn fought back, investigators believe, noting that one of the alleged assailants had bite marks and scratches on his arms when he was arrested. They also intentionally put her body in water with her clothes off to get rid of DNA evidence, the prosecutor in the case argued. Forensic evidence later proved she was sexually assaulted. The Venezuelans were charged with capital murder and other charges; the district attorney is seeking the death penalty, The Center Square reported.

The attackers of American women and girls were among the more than one million Venezuelan nationals who illegally entered the U.S. under the Biden administration and roughly the same number of Salvadorans who illegally entered the country or are identified to be deported or haven’t been deported because of Biden administration policies.

There are more than 662,000 illegal foreign nationals with criminal records identified by ICE to be deported that haven’t been, The Center Square reported. The most violent include those convicted of, or charged with, homicide (14,914), sexual assault (20,061), assault (105,146), and kidnapping (3,372), among other crimes.

They are among the greatest number ever to be reported illegally entering the country in U.S. history, more than 14 million under the Biden administration, The Center Square reported.