Maria Gonzalez of Guatemala has died in Pasadena, Harris County, Texas, United States. She was 11.
After living in Austin, Travis County, Texas then in Florida, USA, Gonzalez and her father Carmelo Gonzalez, 32, moved to an apartment complex in Pasadena in May 2023 while her mother lives in Guatemala. The girl has an uncle and an aunt who lived in the same apartment complex.
Also from Guatemala is Juan Carlos Garcia-Rodriguez, 18. He was 17 when he entered the U.S. in January 2023 by crossing the border in El Paso, El Paso County, Texas.
After Garcia surrendered, he was let free and released to sponsors in Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, USA. A sponsor is someone who agrees to provide housing or financial support to a migrant while the migrant is processed and his or her status is determined.
Garcia-Rodriguez’s sponsors reached out to their connections in Pasadena. The sponsors said the Guatemalan teenager needed work and a place to stay.
In July 2023, Garcia-Rodriguez moved to Pasadena and lived in the same apartment complex where Carmelo and Maria lived. Garcia-Rodriguez shared an apartment with two other Guatemalans, who told Pasadena Police Department officers they did not really know him that well.
A 9:45 a.m. on August 12, 2023, Carmelo left for work, leaving Maria home alone. While at work, he received a message from her saying someone was knocking at the front door.
Carmelo told Maria not to open the door and she replied she would not and she would stay in her bed then he never from her again. He kept on calling her but she was not answering so he asked the girl’s uncle and aunt living in the same apartment complex to check on his daughter.
The uncle and the aunt went to look for Maria but they could not find the girl inside the apartment. Shortly after 3:00 p.m., Carmelo made it home and found Maria’s body wrapped in a trash bag and stuffed in a laundry basket underneath her bed.
Paramedics arrived on the scene, provided medical aid to Maria and pronounced her dead. On August 14, 2023, a medical examiner confirmed that her cause of death was asphyxiation due to strangulation and determined that she was sexually assaulted.
On August 18, 2023, Garcia-Rodriguez was identified as a person of interest. He was later arrested in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he is awaiting extradition to Texas, and is expected to charged with capital murder.
CONAN Daily 