A New Mexico teen is responsible for the death of a former corrections officer in a Snapchat ransom plot gone wrong.
After spending the last month hiding from authorities, Anna Bella Dukes was arrested by Albuquerque Police. Dukes is believed to have lured 20-year-old Nicholas Otero, whom she met over Snapchat, to a location where she had three armed friends prepared to rob him. They took Otero to the home of his brother, Elias Otero, and demanded a $1,000 ransom or they would shoot him. Elias came out and pointed a gun at the driver, who shot at him. The 24-year-old former corrections officer was fatally wounded.
Dukes is charged with an open count of murder, two counts of armed robbery, and individual counts of kidnapping, tampering with evidence, and conspiracy. She has yet to enter a plea.
The situation started with Nicholas Otero picking up Dukes, whom he had only ever interacted with over Snapchat. She got in the car and suggested going to Alvarado Park. Then she began asking questions that the 20-year-old found suspicious.
Dukes asked Otero where he kept his money. She complimented his diamond encrusted chain and asked if he had a gun. When they pulled over at the park, three men emerged from a car behind them as Otero noticed Dukes had an active phone call on her phone in her pocket, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
Otero was taken out of the car and held at gunpoint by one man while the other two searched his car. Then they forced him inside, and both cars were driven to the home he shared with his brother, former corrections officer Elias Otero. Nicholas Otero was made to call his brother and instruct him to bring out $1,000 and a gun or the men would shoot him.
The second car, incidentally, had been carjacked by the group the night prior. Dukes and her accomplices, one of whom has been identified as her boyfriend, 17-year-old Adrian Avila, lured another man with Snapchat and then held him up for the vehicle at the very same park where this attack began.
Elias Otero and another brother came out of the home. Elias pointed his gun at the driver, at which point the driver shot him multiple times.
Investigators are pursuing warrants for two other individuals and working to identify the two other accomplices. The Otero family is happy with the charges and feel blessed they didn't lose both Nicholas and Elias in the situation.
"I just couldn't live knowing my son is no longer here and they were out there living their lives," mom Alicia Otero said of the charges.
"He was just an all around good kid … he's never even gotten a parking ticket — this happening to him was just such a shock."
