Police continued to search Thursday for the person who sexually assaulted and killed an 11-year-old girl before placing her body under her bed in the family’s suburban Houston apartment.
Police in Pasadena, a suburb of Houston, said Maria Gonzalez was home alone around 10 a.m. Saturday when someone knocked on her front door.
The girl texted her father, Carmelo Gonzalez, 32, who had just gone to work.
In an interview with KHOU, Carmelo Gonzalez said he told his daughter not to answer the front door.
Maria Gonzalez said she wouldn’t and would stay in bed. Carmelo Gonzalez said that was the last communication he received from his daughter.
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“I kept calling and calling and she wasn’t answering,” he told KHOU.
During his lunch break around 1 p.m., Carmelo Gonzalez asked his brother and sister-in-law, who live in the same apartment complex, to watch his daughter, Pasadena Police Chief Josh Bruegger told reporters on Tuesday. journalists at a press conference.
The girl’s aunt and uncle found the front door unlocked and when they entered they found that things were out of place. They looked around but couldn’t find her, Bruegger said.
Her aunt and uncle then started looking for her in the apartment complex.
When Carmelo Gonzalez returned home around 3 p.m., he searched the apartment and found his daughter under his bed. He told KHOU that his body was wrapped in a trash bag and placed in a laundry basket. Police say the girl was strangled to death.
Houston police are looking for a suspect who murdered an 11-year-old girl and left her body under her bed in the suburban home.
Bruegger said the girl was sexually assaulted. He said investigators had no suspects and the girl’s father was not considered one as his alibi was checked.
“We have gathered numerous amounts of evidence, which we will process and ultimately help rule out any suspects. To protect the integrity of the investigation, we are not releasing details of the evidence obtained at this time,” the statement said. Officer Jessica Ramirez, spokesperson. for Pasadena Police, said Thursday in an email.
Crime Stoppers of Houston is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.
“We’re doing our best to come out and solve this crime. As the parent of an almost 10-year-old myself, it’s certainly cause for concern,” Bruegger said.
Maria Gonzalez and her father lived in the United States for about four years after immigrating from Guatemala. They had been living in the apartment for about three months, Bruegger said. They had previously lived in Austin and Florida. The girl’s mother and her 7-year-old sister live in Guatemala.
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Their apartment complex has a large Guatemalan population, and since some are in the United States without legal permission, they have been reluctant to cooperate with police, Bruegger said.
“I’m here to tell you right now, the immigration status on the case, it’s neither here nor there. The important thing right now is to solve this case and keep the community safe,” Bruegger said.
Carmelo Gonzalez said his daughter was a kind and calm girl.
“They took my daughter, who I love the most,” Carmelo Gonzalez told KXLN in Houston.