PASADENA, Texas – An 11-year-old girl’s body was found strangled and sexually assaulted underneath her bed at her family’s apartment in the Houston area.
Officials with the Pasadena Police Department said officers were called just after 3 p.m. on Saturday to an apartment complex in the 1000 block of Main Street where they found the body of Maria Gonzalez.
Police Chief Josh Bruegger said the father was at work when he got a text from his daughter Saturday morning saying someone was knocking on the door.
Bruegger said family members went to check on Maria but didn’t see or hear anything and it wasn’t until Maria’s father Carmelo Gonzalez arrived home five hours later that he discovered her body.
“The father’s alibi checks out,” Bruegger said.
During a press conference, Bruegger said investigators have taken DNA samples from people who live in the complex but noted that “getting cooperation has been frankly, somewhat of a challenge.”
“The medical examiner concluded that the cause of death was asphyxiation due to strangulation. Additional investigation determined that the victim was sexually assaulted,” Pasadena police told KSAT sister station KPRC.
Maria’s mother was in Guatemala at the time Maria was killed.
Police currently have no suspects.