AUSTIN, Texas () Police in Texas are asking for the public’s help in finding a missing 9-year-old girl 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, police said. She was not reported missing, according to detectives.
ABC News reports the girl’s grandmother called police after she found Gonzales’ 7-year-old child “malnourished, soiled and barricaded in a bedroom closet” on April 3, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. The grandmother had gone to the apartment after Gonzales was arrested for marijuana possession, according to the affidavit.
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 the hospital where she was found to weigh just 29 pounds, according to the affidavit. She had dark-colored spots covering her body that medical staff said were signs of malnourishment, police said. She also made comments that her “bones hurt.”
local affiliate KXAN reports, citing police, 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.
Police are now asking the public for help finding Ava Gonzales.
“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 her whereabouts is asked to email ava@austintexas.gov. You can also submit an anonymous tip through Crime Stoppers by calling 512-572-8477.
affiliate KXAN in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.
