In a concerning turn of events for one of Texas’ most heartbreaking recent child ab**e incidents, police have revealed that the mother of a 7-year-old girl discovered starving and barricaded inside a closet last month had another child—one that went missing seven years ago and was never reported.
33-year-old Virginia Gonzales was arrested on April 3, after her mother discovered the severely malnourished granddaughter hidden inside a closet of Gonzales’ Del Valle apartment. The closet had no lighting or ventilation, and the child was reportedly kept there for “weeks at a time” with little food or water.
Austin police are now asking for the public’s help in finding Ava Marie Gonzales, who was last seen in December 2017 when she was 2 years old and under the custody of her mother.
