PASADENA, TEXAS: An 11-year-old Texas girl tragically lost her life after she was beaten, sexually assaulted, and asphyxiated to death inside her family residence last weekend while her father was out at work, authorities claimed.
At a news conference Tuesday, August 15, Pasadena Police Chief Josh Brugger said that the father of the victim, Carmelo Gonzalez, repeatedly tried to get in touch with his daughter, Maria Gonzalez, throughout the day, with growing anxiety.
Apparently, much to his horror, Carmelo discovered the girl's body wrapped in a trash bag and stuffed inside a laundry basket underneath her own bed.
Who is Maria Gonzalez?
Maria had been sexually assaulted, had blunt force trauma to the head, and died of strangulation, an autopsy report showed Monday. Brugger called the murder a “very brutal” and “very violent crime." Police said that Maria began texting her father that someone was knocking at the front door of their apartment when Gonzalez, 32, had just arrived at work last Saturday morning.
According to the authorities, the father replied back and ordered her not to open the door to which she agreed, telling her dad that she wouldn't answer the door and would instead stay in bed. However, that was the last time Carmelo got a reply from Maria. "I called and called and called," Gonzalez told local television station KHOU11.
Carmelo dialed his brother and sister-in-law
Maria's silence led Carmelo to frantically dial his brother and sister-in-law, who also lived in the same apartment complex. Police said that the father asked them to go check on his daughter around 1 pm local time.
Maria’s aunt found the apartment door shut but unlocked and when she entered she thought things were out of place and quickly backed out of the apartment, grabbing her husband to come check the unit with her, Chief Brugger told reporters.
Neither the victim's aunt nor her uncle could find her as they searched the apartment which further fuelled Carmelo's concern. He immediately rushed home from work and soon found his daughter’s body under the bed.
Who committed the crime?
“At this point, we do not have a suspect,” Chief Brugger said, adding that authorities have no suspicions about the father. The Gonzalez is originally from Guatemala, and Maria’s mother is currently still living there, the police chief said.
The father and daughter moved to Florida about four years ago and then moved to Austin, Texas, before settling in Pasadena, an eastern suburb of Houston. The police chief said that Maria's murder deeply affected a number of officers who arrived at the scene alongside the Gonzalez family and the apartment building's other residents.
“There’s a large Guatemalan population there in the apartment complex,” the police chief said. “It’s a fairly close community there.”
What did the neighbor say?
A neighbor told the outlet that she does not feel confident bringing her own daughter to the United States. “I don’t feel safe here,” she said, shaken by Maria’s murder. “She was a sweet little girl. A little angel." Neighbors had just gathered to celebrate the young girl's 11th birthday a few weeks ago, she told the outlet.
