Virginia Gonzales (City of Austin/Austin Police Department).
A Texas mother is facing serious charges after allegedly confining her 7-year-old daughter in a dark closet without access to food or bathroom facilities due to bladder issues and frequent misbehavior, as stated by the child’s siblings and authorities.
Virginia Gonzales, 33, has been charged with causing serious bodily harm to a child. The daughter was discovered in a neglected state—malnourished and weighing only 29 pounds—following several weeks in the closet, according to court records reviewed by local ABC station KVUE.
The girl was reportedly found by her grandmother at the mother’s residence in Austin.
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Gonzales is accused of instructing the girl’s six siblings to keep her confined in the cramped area, measuring about 3 feet by 1 foot, 10 inches, as reported by KVUE.
The children, which range in age from 2 to 14, told their grandmother that the girl was being punished by Gonzales for “getting into stuff” and eating things she was “not supposed to,” according to police.
The victim’s brother, who is 10, said the girl was allegedly only allowed to eat one corn dog a day and given a half-cup of water to drink. She defecated and urinated inside of the closet, according to her siblings.
Austin cops have placed the children in protective custody and are now looking for another girl, Ava, from the Gonzales family who’s been missing since 2017. She was 9 years old when she disappeared, according to a press release.
Cops say the closet victim suffered permanent brain damage and prolonged starvation as a result of the imprisonment, which was discovered on April 3. The closet where the girl was allegedly being held was barricaded.
Authorities have asked anyone with information related to the missing sibling, Ava, to contact the Austin Police Department.
