AUSTIN (KXAN) — Police in Austin, Texas, are asking for the public’s help in finding a 9-year-old girl who has not been seen in more than seven years after her mother was accused of locking another child in a closet for “weeks at a time,” according to an arrest affidavit.
Ava Marie Gonzales was last seen by family in December 2017, when she was 2 years old. She was in the custody of her mother, Virginia Gonzales, at the time and was not reported missing, according to detectives.
Virginia Gonzales was arrested last month on a charge of serious injury to a child charge officers responded to an apartment in Del Valle for a welfare check. A 911 caller said she found her 7-year-old granddaughter, Ava’s younger sibling, “malnourished, soiled and barricaded in a bedroom closet,” the arrest affidavit read.
The grandmother told police that other children in the home were ordered to put the girl in the closet because she had issues controlling her bladder and was “always getting into stuff,” which the grandmother clarified meant she was trying to eat things she was not supposed to, the affidavit said.
The girl was taken to Dell Children’s Medical Center, where she was found to weigh 29 pounds, the affidavit said. She had dark-colored spots covering her body that medical staff said were signs of malnourishment, and she made comments that her “bones hurt.”
An older sibling told police the girl would eat a “hot dog/corndog in the morning and in the evening” and would only receive half a cup of water, according to the affidavit. The pantry, fridge and freezer were all found to be stocked with a variety of food items, police said.
The closet had no light or air circulation and was about 4 feet 9 inches by 1 foot 10 inches. Other items in the closet meant the girl had even less space, according to the affidavit. Boxes placed in front of the closet door to barricade the girl inside had a combined weight of more than 75 pounds, police said.
Police are now asking for the public’s help in finding Ava, who would now be 9 years old.
“Austin Police Department’s Missing Persons detectives are seriously concerned about Ava’s welfare given the circumstances in which Ava’s 7-year-old sibling was found,” Det. Russell Constable, with APD’s Child Abuse Unit, said in a Tuesday press conference.
Anyone with information about Ava’s whereabouts is asked to email [email protected]. Anonymous tips can also be submitted through Crime Stoppers by calling 512-572-8477.
Shelly Troberman, an attorney with Child Protective Services experience, said it is highly unusual for a child to go missing for so long without anybody noticing.
“I think the way most of us conduct our lives, we’re taking children to regular doctors’ appointments. Many of them are in preschool. Oftentimes, there’s a second parent who’s involved in the child’s life,” Troberman said.
Austin police told reporters that none of the seven children living in the apartment were enrolled in school.
“I would say it’s pretty unusual, especially to have children as old as the 14-year-old, who’ve never been inside a classroom,” Troberman said.
Troberman added that she has worked on cases in the past where people did not know of a child’s death due to the parent providing conflicting information to family members and officials.
“You’ve got a lot of different people sometimes operating in these cases, getting different information and sharing incorrect information with each other,” Troberman said. “It makes it hard.”
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