Perez was last seen at Burke's Motel in Miami, Florida on June 1, 2012. Her boyfriend stated they had a fight and Natanalie walked out and never came back. In the months before her disappearance, Perez had been unusually reticent on social media and with her family. Finally she had asked her aunt for help. She was traumatized, her hair had been ripped out, and her fingernails were flipped back. She told her aunt she had been forced into sex trafficking against her will. She went to stay with her mother. After a short visit with her mother, she insisted on returning to Miami.