Welcome to Arrest Stories. A thirty-three-year-old Texas mother has been sentenced to twenty-five years in prison after pleading guilty to locking her seven-year-old daughter in a closet for weeks and severely starving her. Here's what may have happened.
On April third, twenty twenty-five, police in Travis County responded to a nine-one-one call at Virginia Marie Gonzales' residence in Del Valle. The victim's grandmother had come over and discovered the seven-year-old child barricaded in a bedroom closet. What officers found shocked even seasoned investigators.
The child was discovered locked in a closet measuring approximately three feet by one foot, ten inches of actual space due to other items stored inside. The closet's double doors had been tied together with a charging cable and blocked from opening by seventy-five pounds of boxes. The space had no light or ventilation.
When found, the seven-year-old was soiled and weighed just twenty-nine pounds, placing her in the bottom one percentile for weight for her age. Police reports indicate Gonzales had confined her daughter to this space for approximately one month, providing only one corn dog and half a cup of water daily. Medical professionals later determined the child was quote "malnourished, soiled, and barricaded in a bedroom closet."
The child was immediately taken to Dell Children's Medical Center where doctors discovered she had suffered moderate to severe cerebral atrophy caused by prolonged malnutrition. One medical professional noted quote "The fat in her cheeks was nonexistent. Her body had used those stores to sustain itself." This brain injury is one from which she will never recover.
Six other children, ages two to fourteen, were found in the apartment in good physical condition. Gonzales allegedly told authorities her daughter was quote "always getting into stuff."
Prosecutors stated quote "We hope that by Ms. Gonzales agreeing she is guilty, accepting twenty-five years of incarceration, and waiving her right to appeal it is the first step to the victim's road to recovery. No child should ever have to go through what the victim did."
All suspects presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Do not take this report as factual, always verify facts. Thanks for watching Arrest Stories.