Mother assisted Colombia authorities in arresting four gang members who kidnapped and killed her 15-year-old daughter by disguising herself as a homeless person

A woman whose daughter was kidnapped and murdered in Colombia disguised herself as a homeless person to help authorities find the alleged killers of her oldest child.

Nathalie Amaya revealed she changed her appearance in order to blend in with the other homeless people who were living in an abandoned building in the Bogotá neighborhood of San Bernardo and find the suspects who killed her daughter, 15-year-old Lynda Michelle Amaya, in December.

The Colombian Attorney General’s Office announced Thursday morning the arrest of three men and a woman tied to a local gang known for terrorizing the neighborhood.

It wasn't clear in information released by Colombian law enforcement why the girl might have been targeted, or if her killing was random. 

The distraught mother, who has three other children, - a four-year-old boy and 13-year old twin boys - helped the Bogotá Metropolitan Police and Colombian intelligence agents by volunteering to go undercover on December 3 in hope of finding her daughter. 

'I decided to change my physical appearance, wrap myself in a pet blanket so that it would have a very bad smell. I crushed a lot of coal to stain my face, entered that place and hid so that they would feel that I was part of that world,' Nathalie Amaya recalled in an interview with Noticias Caracol.

'I did this every night and the place where I always sat was the corner where they found the girl's body, as if perhaps she always told me to come there, to rest or to listen. I don't know.'  

Lynda Michelle Amaya, 15, went out looking for her stolen cellphone in Bogotá, Colombia, on November 30 and was found dead December 1 in an abandoned building

Nathalie Amaya revealed she disguised herself as a homeless person and spent multiple nights in Bogotá's streets until she was able to help Colombian authorities find the killers of her 15-year-old daughter

Abandoned building in Bogotá, Colombia, where the dead body of 15-year-old Lynda Michelle Amaya was discovered December 1

According to the Colombian Attorney General’s Office, Lynda Michelle went out for a bike ride November 17 and was mugged for her cellphone. 

The teen returned home and was optimistic about finding her cellphone. On November 30, she told her mom she was going to head out to a stretch of a main avenue where it was common to buy phones that were stolen.

It was the last time mother and daughter would talk, and her body was found dead the following day inside a rundown building.

Lynda Michelle Amaya had her cellphone stolen November 17 and held out hope that she would find it. On November 30, she told her mother she was going to go to a main avenue in Bogotá where it was common to find cellphones had been stolen and were for sale. The leader of a local street gang known as Tazmania ordered her kidnapping. Her body was located December 1 in a building that was being demolished

Aerial view of the building where Lynda Michelle Amaya's body was discovered

Pictured are two (left and right) of four suspects arrested Thursday in Bogotá, Colombia in connection with the murder of 15-year-oldLynda Michelle Amaya

Pictured are two (left and right) of four suspects arrested Thursday in Bogotá, Colombia in connection with the murder of 15-year-old Lynda Michelle Amaya, who disappeared November 30 and was found dead December 1

The Attorney General’s Office said the leader of a local gang, known as Tazmania, ordered her captured. Lynda Michelle Amaya was beaten and stabbed before the suspects stuffed her body inside black bags.

The suspects then allegedly used a recycling cart and transferred her body to a building that was in the process of being demolished and left it covered with blankets.  

Nathalie Amaya learned through the local news that the body of a girl had been found at an abandoned building in San Bernardo and visited the local medical examiners office only to be told that it was not her daughter. 

However, officials never asked for her DNA because they claimed the victim was between the age of 19 and 23. 

Unbeknownst to the news that the teen had been found by the police, friends and family members, launched a citywide search. 

Nelson Amaya revealed gang members called the family asking for a ransom in exchange for granddaughter's safe return.  

It was not until January 1 that Nathalie Amaya learned her missing daughter’s body was at the local morgue.