Maria Gonzalez 11 year old girl sexually assaulted & left for dead at her Pasadena, Texas home as authorities have yet to identify a suspect or make an arrest after her father, Carmelo found the girl under his bed after she called earlier that day to say someone was knocking on the front door.
A Texas community has been left stumped following the news of a father coming home to find his 11 year old daughter had been sexually assaulted and left for dead under his bed, as they try to understand who may have committed the crime, which to date has led to no suspects or arrests.
Carmelo Gonzalez, 32, had arrived at work when he got a text from his daughter Maria Gonzalez earlier that day at 10 a.m. Saturday to say someone was knocking at the front door of their Pasadena home.
Speaking to Fox 26 the father recalled telling his daughter, ‘Don’t open the door because I am arriving at work,’ with the girl responding, ‘that she wouldn’t and that she was staying in my bed.” It was the last communication the father would have with his daughter.
Was 11 year old child specifically targeted?
The dad repeatedly attempted to call to speak to his daughter and asked relatives who live in the same building ‘to go check on [her] because he hadn’t heard from her,’ Pasadena Police Chief Josh Bruegger told a press conference Tuesday.
An aunt and uncle found the door open — but ‘were unable to locate her’ after ‘a cursory check,’ the police chief said.
When Gonzalez got home around 3 p.m. — about five hours after his daughter’s warning — the father found Maria’s lifeless body inside a laundry basket under his bed.
‘They left her under the bed in a plastic bag. They left my poor daughter,’ Gonzalez told FOX26.
The 11-year-old was sexually assaulted before being strangled, the police chief said, adding that the young girl also suffered blunt force trauma to the head.
Had emigrated from Guatemela looking for a better life
The Pasadena medical examiner confirmed that Maria had been raped and strangled.
Investigators do not have any suspects for the ‘violent, violent crime,’ said the police chief, revealing that some people had volunteered DNA to be cleared.
‘At this point, the father’s alibi checks out, so he is — at this point, at least — not a suspect,’ Bruegger said.
Gonzalez described his daughter as a ‘good, quiet girl’. The girl according to the father had only recently turned 11.
Dad and daughter lived alone in the apartment, with Maria’s mother believed to be in Guatemala, the chief said. Father and daughter first arrived in the U.S four years ago and the pair had only moved into the apartment complex where the brutal crime took place 3 months ago KHOU 11 reported.
‘I do not know their legal status,’ the police chief said of the family, stressing that ‘it’s the least of our concerns at this point.’
Is the killer close to the family and know their inner workings?
The home showed no signs of forced entry, and the door was closed but unlocked when Maria’s aunt and uncle first checked out the scene.
The apartment area has security cameras but they may not have been recording due to recent storms, the chief suggested.
The killer likely knew that the little girl was home alone at the time, the police chief suggested.
‘It seems awfully suspicious that Dad leaves for work and within 30 minutes you’ve got somebody knocking at the door,’ the police chief noted.
Neighbors who had helped throw a birthday party for Maria only a few weeks ago are now afraid for their own children as they fear a child killer may be lurking in their community.
