December 21, 2025 • 45 mins
Austin police respond to a home in Del Valle after receiving a 911 call about a 7-year-old girl is discovered starved and locked inside a bedroom closet. Six other children are also found in the home, but police say it appears they are physically healthy. According to reports, the child was soiled and barricaded in a closet with heavy boxes blocking the door.
An arrest affidavit reveals Virginia Marie Gonzales is accused of locking the 7-year-old girl in a closet for “weeks at a time.” The affidavit further states the girl’s grandmother told police that the child had trouble controlling her bladder and often ate things she shouldn’t. This allegedly led to her siblings being instructed to keep her locked in the closet.
The 7-year-old was hospitalized and is now recovering. During the investigation, detectives learn about another child, Ava, who has been missing for years. Virginia Marie Gonzales, Ava ‘s mother, was arrested on a charge of serious injury to a child in connection with the 7-year-old’s case. According to police, the missing now 9-year-old child was last seen when she was just 2 years old and in the custody of her mother, Virginia Marie Gonzales.
Now Gonzales has rejected a plea offer related to her arrest. The State offered Gonzales a 40-year prison sentence in exchange for her guilty plea. She and her attorney Gabe Hernandez rejected the offer calling it “utterly absurd.” Gonzales is still in custody. Trial is set to begin Jan. 26, 2026.
Joining Nancy Grace today,
- LeAnne Marie, friend of mom, Virginia Gonzales
- Bronwyn Blake- Adjunct Professor, University of Texas School of Law; Chief Legal Officer, Texas Advocacy Project; Founder: Teen Justice Initiative, advocating for teen victims of dating violence. Website: texasadvocacyproject.org; Facebook and Instagram: @TexasAdvocacyProject
- Dr. Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist, AngelaArnoldMD.com, Expert in the Treatment of Pregnant/Postpartum Women, Former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emory University, Former Medical Director of The Psychiatric Ob-Gyn Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital
- Daryl Parker - Fmr. Lieutenant in the Fannin County Sheriff's Office / Private Investigator at Blackfish Intelligence; Former Marine, Former Texas police officer; has worked with the Innocence Project of Texas for the last ten years; website: wwww.blackfishintel.com; instagram: @blackfishintel, FB – blackfishintelligence
- Virginia Bagby - Director of the ChildHelp National Child Abuse Hotline, website: ChildHelp.org; Facebook and Instagram: @ChildHelp
- Dr Kendall Crowns - Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth), NEW Podcast "Mayhem in the Morgue" launching soon, Lecturer: Burnett School of Medicine at TCU (Texas Christian University)
- Christina Aguayo- Investigative Reporter, website: www.ChristinaAguayoNews.Com, Facebook: @ChristinaAguayoNews, Instagram: @Christina.AguayoNews
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Virginia Gonzalez, the mom of multiple children, including a seven
year old little girl found locked in a dark closet
that was barricaded down to about twenty six pounds, fed
one corn dog a day. If that, well, I'm looking
(00:27):
at her mugshot. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa? What happened to
those massive fake eyelashes? Where did they go?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Here she is in the raw and Miss Thing comes
into court and demands to speak. Of course, I could
not be happier. That's right, a mom of a little
girl just seven years old at twenty six pounds. I
think John David Wade did it five months for Pete's sake,
(00:58):
locked in a closet, catered in the closet, the closet
dark in their twenty four to seven three sixty five,
gets one corn dog a day if that speaks out
in court.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Now, before I.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Tell you what Miss Thing says in court, let me
jog your memory about what happened.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
On April third, twenty twenty five, Austin Police Department responded
to a nine to one to one call for a
seven year old child that was found locked in a
closet and starving. The seven year old was immediately taken
to a local hospital for medical treatment and it's currently recovering.
There were six other children found in the home that
appeared physically healthy.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
Police officers at an Austin apartment find a severely malnourished
seven year old girl who is barricaded in a bedroom closet.
The child is found soiled, weighing just twenty nine pounds,
and has been confined to a three foot by two
foot closet space for approximately a month. Investigators find the
child has been given one corn dog and a half
a cup of water a day. Doctors Adell Children's Medical
(02:04):
Center determined the little girl as suffering moderate to severe
cerebral atrophy from prolonged malnutrition, damage from which she will
never recover.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
And now new details emerging in a case out of Austin, Texas,
Authorities first learn a seven year old girl is locked
in a closet.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Who knows how long. She weighs twenty six pounds.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
When they go to inspect that, they find out her
sister has been missing four years. Mommy Virginia Gonzales spacing
charges including injury to a child, inflicting serious injury after
(02:50):
her daughter found locked in a closet and starving. But
it was only after that arrest police learned she never
reported the disappearance of the other child, a nine year
old little girl missing since December two thousand and seventeen.
Now many people have asked me online, why didn't the
(03:11):
grandmother do anything. Well, the grandmother did call police when
she went to the home and found the seven year
old in the closet, but no one called police about
the missing sister. And I want to remind you this
closet was less than five feet by two feet five
by two five feet tall, two feet wide.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
There were other objects in there. What other objects in there?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
No light, no ventilation, and it was barricaded by seventy
five pounds of boxes in front of it.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Can you imagine the life that.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Child had in a closet her living space about three
by one foot ten inches three by two let's be generous,
no light, no ventilation, barricaded on the outside by seventy five.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Pound boxes in front of it.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
The little girl was soiled, of course, she had tee
teed and defecated. I said, twenty six, it's twenty nine pounds,
twenty nine pounds when she was rescued. She's already suffered
moderate to severe cerebral atrophy. That's permanent brain damage due
(04:28):
to prolonged nutrition. This is what we are just learning.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
She will never recover, according to the state's affidavit. Now,
the other six children in the home from two to
fourteen told grandma they were ordered to lock her in
there because she had quote bladder control issues and was
quote always getting into stuff and quote eating things she
(04:56):
was not supposed to, what like food. A ten year
old brother told police he was told he had to
clean the closet because the little sister would have to
defecate and urinate in the closet. The little girl gets
just a corn dog a day and a half a
cup of water. How can a child survive day after day,
(05:18):
week after week, month after month, locked in a dark closet,
living off nothing, straight out to Christina Ohio joining US
investigative reporter Christina, this child locked in a closet.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
What happened?
Speaker 6 (05:33):
Well, according to the affadavit, when police got there, when
the caller called in for the welfare check and police
got there, they found a seven year old little girl
locked in a closet. It was barricaded by seventy five
pounds of boxes. They opened that door, they found that
child in there. She was soiled, surrounded by feces. She
was severely malnourished. She had dark spots all over her body,
(05:56):
which is a sign of severe malnourishment. They took her,
of course, to the hospital where she weighed twenty nine
pounds and medical personnel say that because of the prolonged
starvation of that little girl, that she will have permanent
brain damage.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Permanent brain damage caused by starvation. Joining me, Virginia Bagbee,
director of Child Help, National child abuse hotline Child Help.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Virginia, thank you for being with us.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Many people don't know that starving a child can result
in permanent brain damage.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Have you ever seen anything like it before, Virginia.
Speaker 7 (06:36):
We have definitely heard about cases like this, and they
happen all too often.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Doctor Kendall Crown's chief medical Examiner Terrent County.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
That's fort Worth, never a lack of business.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
He is the esteemed lecturer at the Burnett School of
Medicine at TCU and has just launched a hit podcast,
Mayhem and the More. Doctor Kendall Crowns thank you for
being with us. I know that you heard this, but
let me repeat it again. A seven year old little
girl barricaded in a locked bedroom closet lot from the outside, soiled,
(07:08):
a seven year old weigh just twenty nine pounds, confined
to a three by two foot closet. She is being
given at most one corn dog and a half cup
of water a day.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
She is now.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Suffering permanent, moderate to severe cerebral atrophy from prolonged malnutrition.
The dock states she will never recover. Could you interpret
that please?
Speaker 8 (07:40):
Certainly? So she's not being given much food or water.
I mean a corn dog and a cup of water
is not much for a child or anybody for that matter.
Her body is losing its depleting its muscle, depleting its stores,
so her muscles are wasting away, her bones are starting
to not form properly, and she's being starved. And part
(08:04):
of being starved results in your cardiac muscle or your
heart muscle mass starting to also fade away or go away,
which reduces your heart's ability to pump your blood, which
results in your kidney's failing and you go into kidney failure.
You also start having gut issues as well, and this
(08:24):
can all affect your brain and your brain's development, especially
in a child. So all those factors combined will result
in her having these issues that the doctors are describing.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Now, there general crowns.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
A child of seven years old should weigh around seventy
pounds forty five to seventy pounds, Is that right?
Speaker 8 (08:44):
Yes, it would be about the average date of a
child at.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Seven, a seven year old average. Of course, they grow
in different ways. The average is fifty one pounds for
a seven year old child, but it ranges from forty
three to seventy. So where would you place twenty nine
pounds in that spectrum? Twenty nine pounds. If a seven
(09:14):
year old can weigh up to seventy three, she's not
even half the weight of a seven year old.
Speaker 8 (09:20):
Yeah, the way you're describing as a severely malnourished child,
So she's been starved for a prolonged period of time.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
How does that make a child brain damaged?
Speaker 8 (09:31):
It's from the body shutting down, the lack of food,
the lack of loss of muscle mass, the heart muscle
mass being lost and not circulating properly. The organs aren't
getting enough oxygenated blood and of course the brain's part
of this, so the brain's not getting proper oxygenation. Also,
the brain relies on glucose or sugars to grow and develop,
(09:53):
and it's not getting that as well, So the brain
is basically maldeveloped, not getting enough oxygen, so you get
brain damage.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Doctor Crowns.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Isn't it true that a child weighing twenty nine pounds typically,
and I'm basing this on charts of statistics that I prepared,
it's typically a twenty two month old child at twenty
nine pounds.
Speaker 8 (10:20):
Yes, I would be correct.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
A seven year old little girl, doctor Kymdall Crowns, that
should weigh seventy one pounds fifty one to seventy one
pounds weighs twenty nine pounds. With a child starving, what
would she be enduring on the floor of that locked closet,
Doctor Crowns.
Speaker 8 (10:41):
She would be enduring confusion, dehydration, or a very dry
mouth or throat. It'd be dry, she'd have trouble swallowing,
she'd be very tired in just not able to even move.
And then you would add on to that the fact
that without the food she'd start hallucinating, and then eventually
just slip into a coma and finally die.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Doctor Kendel crowns, would the child lose her hair? I
know that she's losing all muscle tone. Would she be
losing her hair? Would her faculties or hearing her sight?
Would that be intact? And what would her brain function
be lying on the floor of a dark closet starving.
Speaker 8 (11:24):
So yes, hair often will fall out in individuals who
are starved. Her brain function would be very minimal. She'd
be confused, even possibly hallucinating, and just completely fatigued and
not even feeling like moving.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Is it true?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Doctor Kendal crowns that when someone has been starved for
a prolonged period of time, as in this case, when
you give them food, they can't even eat it.
Speaker 8 (11:48):
Yes, you can have what is called if you give
a person who's been starved, you feed them too quickly,
you can have what is called refeeding syndrome, where they
actually will the food intake it will cause so much
of a shock to their body that they can die.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Guys, when police show up to a home, they find
six children and then a seventh locked in a closet
weighing just twenty nine pounds, but ironically, amazingly listen to
the condition of the other six children.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
Six other children in the apartment, ranging in age from
two to fourteen years old, are found to be an
apparently good physical condition. The apartment's pantry, refrigerator in freezer
are stocked with various food items. The oldest children were
given strict orders to put the little girl in the
closet because she had bladder control issues and she was
trying to eat things she wasn't supposed to. During the investigation,
(12:47):
police learned there's an eighth child, Ava Marie, who is
not in the home with the other children.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
We've got one starved child who has permanent brain damage.
A seven year old little girl weighing twenty nine pounds
locked in a closet. Now I've got a missing child too.
But to doctor angel Arnold joining me renowned psychiatrists out
of the Atlanta jurisdiction at angela Arnold MD dot com,
(13:12):
Doctor Angie, thank you for being with us.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Did you hear what was just reported?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
That there were six other children in the home seemingly healthy,
and they were encouraged to keep the little girl locked
in a closet, starving her because the little girl would
eat things she wasn't.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Supposed to eat.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
You know what, doctor Angie, I've heard every excuse in
the book about why parents starve the children. Oh, the
child ate a candy bar, I'll starve it. The child
eats too much, I'll starve it. The child misbehaved, I'll
starve it.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I mean, there are a million.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Excuses I have heard as to why moms and dads starve.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
The baby dead.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
But yeah, we see six other children seemingly healthy, and.
Speaker 9 (14:04):
This is oftentimes what we do see in cases like this, Nancy,
So the other children need to be taken care of
as well as this goes on, because they have been
suffering something.
Speaker 10 (14:16):
Called Stockholm syndrome.
Speaker 9 (14:18):
They want to They are so scared of the abuse
that they see being heaped on this other child that
they that they go into it with their mother literally
to protect themselves. Okay, because Nancy, imagine how scared these
other children are. They never know who's going to be
(14:39):
next to be locked in that closet. So they're going
to listen to their mama. They're going to do what
she says. And I think that they could probably also
psychologically sort of break off from from feeling towards the
child that is being locked in the closet so that
(15:00):
they can protect themselves, because this is chaos that this.
Speaker 10 (15:04):
Family is living in.
Speaker 9 (15:05):
It is complete and utter chaos, and all of those
other children are suffering. They may not be branded brain damaged.
Speaker 10 (15:13):
Excuse me, they.
Speaker 9 (15:14):
Are not being you know, they're not being starved, but
they are also being damaged by the so called mother
of theirs.
Speaker 11 (15:24):
A missing child case takes a dark turn after a
disturbing discovery inside a family home.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
It brings to mind the case of another seven year
old child, Adrian Jones.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
There was just handed.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Down a multimillion dollar verdict against the state of Kentucky.
Adrian Jones was systematically starved, forced by his mother and father.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
To watch the rest of the family.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
They would put bars of soap in his mouth while
everyone else ate, force him to stand outside, chin deep
in a pool until finally the boy died.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
They killed the boy. Listen.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
Former bail bondsman Michael Jones is a wardy custody of
his son, Adrian Jones, and takes the boy away from
his mother For the next four years. Adrian is regularly starved,
rudely beaten, tortured taste and locked in a shower naked
for months. Adrian's brothers sisters do not suffer the same fate.
Adrian is singled out by his father and stepmother. When
the child dies, Michael Jones buys two pigs and doesn't
(16:42):
feed them. While the Adrian's body is left in the
shower for two weeks. When the pigs are starving, Michael
Jones feeds his son to the pigs. Michael and Heather
Jones plead guilty to first yegary murder and are serving
twenty five years to life.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
So in one closet, we've got the child starved and
a and back to you, doctor Anngie Arnold, you said
the other siblings are gonna have to be in treatment.
You're right, because they didn't just watch their sister starve
slowly to death. They were forced to keep her in
the closet themselves.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
They're going to go the rest of their lives.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Thinking they starve their sister and now she's got permanent
brain damage.
Speaker 10 (17:21):
Angie, that's exactly correct, Nancy.
Speaker 9 (17:23):
These children have been abused in a different way, and
it's all for a matter of control. It's to keep
all of those children in control, Nancy, because you know,
you can only imagine there's one mother all of these children.
If somebody got old enough to decide, you know, we
really shouldn't be treating this person this way, they could
(17:44):
possibly escape or something like this.
Speaker 10 (17:47):
Right, but that mother.
Speaker 9 (17:49):
Is making sure that they are so terrified. They are
so terrified in the home that they live in, and
she and she feeds them so that they have this
odd relationship where with the mother where they still need.
Speaker 10 (18:03):
Her, but they're scared of her, so that none of
them will go against Charlotte Too.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Brown Blake joining US agent, Professor of University Texas School
of Law, Chief Legal Officer Texas Advocacy Project, browin thank.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
You for being with us.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I've seen it many many times, like in Adrian Jones,
like in this case, for one child out of the
whole group is singled out and they're the ones that starved.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
That child is the one that's abused.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I don't understand the phenomena, but I accept it because
I've seen it over and over, even cases that I prosecuted,
other children would go unscathed while the one child would
end up dead.
Speaker 12 (18:50):
The idea that abuse is all about power and control
really helps explain this dynamic. This person is not out
of control. They're being very calculated and systematic in who
they abuse and how so all of those children experienced abuse,
just in different ways.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Not only do we have a child starved your death,
languishing on the floor of locked closet, we have a
missing child.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Listen.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
During the investigation, police discovered that there was an eighth
child who was not found inside the home. The missing
nine year old child was identified as Ava Marie Gonzalez.
Missing persons Detectives determined that Ava was last seen in
December twenty seventeen, when she was two years old and
in the custody of her mother, Virginia Marie Gonzalez.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
Learning there should be eight children in the apartment, not
just the seven they found, police opened an investigation and
quickly determined Ava Marie has not been seen by family
or friends since she was two years old in twenty seventeen,
in custody of her mother, Virginia Gonzalez. Considering the condition
of Ava's seven year old sister when she was found,
Austin police detected are very concerned about Ava's welfare.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
So they've got six children seemingly healthy. You've got one
child starved locked in a closet, and now you've got
a missing child. Joining me is a special guest. This
is Leanne Marie, friend of the children's mother, Virginia Gonzalez. Leanne,
thank you for being with us. Yes, ma'am, Leanne Marie.
(20:25):
Tell me about Virginia Gonzalez.
Speaker 13 (20:28):
So, from what I know, she was just a normal person.
Speaker 14 (20:34):
I mean, honestly, she never really had her kids with her,
like you know, presence. The only one that I've seen
with her in the past year was the oldest one,
the fourteen year old. Besides that, we never knew that
she had, you know, the little girl.
Speaker 13 (20:53):
We only knew of boys.
Speaker 14 (20:55):
So she was just a typical person, partying out in
the clubs and the bars. I mean, she she was
just she never lived like she even had nine eight
nine kids.
Speaker 13 (21:10):
Very very you're scaring me.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Now there's mommy, Hi mom, Yeah, but there she is,
party down mom. Where are your children right now? William
Marine just said something that scared me. Okay, hold on,
So I know that there are six children in the home,
healthy ish, one starved in a closet, and one missing.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
That's eight.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
But you mentioned nine, the possibility of a ninth child.
Speaker 13 (21:36):
Yes, ma'am, a very ninth child.
Speaker 14 (21:39):
Yes, So it's right now they're saying that this night child,
he is not He does not have a social social
security here in Texas, so he's not registered here in Texas.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Okay, Darryl Parker, I need you and I need you
now there's another missing child.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Did you hear that?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Darryl Parker, former Lieutenant Fanning County Sheriff's Office, former marine,
former Texas police officer.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Help me. So we're learning right now that there's a
ninth child that's in the wind. Nobody knows how old.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
The child is, where it is, it doesn't have a
Texas Social Security number.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Yeah, and Nancy, that's pretty concerning. I know that the
mom has already made several statements to police that are
inconsistent about the child that is missing already that they
already know about. And it'll be interesting to see if
some follow up questioning can reveal anything about this ninth child.
Speaker 8 (22:34):
Possible ninth child.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Virginia Bagby joining us from Child Help National abuse hotline
going into this right now. I knew that there were
eight children, six in the home one Starve near death
with brain damage and one missing since twenty seventeen. Now
I'm hearing about child number nine. Is that child dead?
(22:56):
I mean, what do you do when you get a
call like this? The child help?
Speaker 7 (23:00):
Well, this is a really difficult one. I would encourage
somebody to reach out to the local hospitals potentially where
all the other children have been born, to see if
they have any record. This is very concerning to have
two children missing. Now these other children have probably are
aware that they have siblings that are missing. Add that
to the terror they've been experiencing.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
In court, Miss thing Virginia Gonzalez states, I instructed them
not to let her out of the bedroom, but not
the closet, so she would basically blame the other children.
Quote we'd catch her in the restroom doing something bad.
What what would she be doing in the bathroom at
(23:54):
seven years old? Quote it was easier for my sons
to watch her that way.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Are you doing?
Speaker 2 (24:01):
What was grandma doing? Why weren't they watching her? Why
would you leave a ten year old boy in charge
of six other children? Text messages uncover Gonzala is texting
one of her children. Quote, clean the closet, then throw
her back in. In the affidavit we obtained, the detective
describes a child, the fat in her cheeks was nonexistent.
(24:22):
Her body had used those stores to sustain itself. Now,
wait a minute, Gonzales speaks more. She insists the children
had quote adequate food. I don't dispute I was wrong.
I know what I've done is wrong. I want to
fight for my kids. Are you serious? I'm ready to
(24:44):
do whatever I need to keep my children in my life.
Well you know what, they could be your pen pals
from behind bars woman.
Speaker 11 (24:52):
A shocking discovery inside a home leads police to investigate
a long buried secret.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Okay, Liam Marie is joining us. A friend of the mom,
Virginia Gozalz MS murray, thank you because what you've.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Just said could save a child's life.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yes, mom, However, do you know Leanne is the ninth
child older younger girl.
Speaker 14 (25:16):
Boy, it's a boy, and he is around age nine
to ten years old. So she has a fourteen and eleven,
A ten, A nine, a seven. I know she has
two three year olds the newborn. So there's there's there's
nine from what I'm hearing right now.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Okay, hold on, let me have this up.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
There's a fourteen year old, an eleven year old, a
ten year old, A nine year old is the boy
that you think is missing? A seven year old is
a little girl starved in the closet? Two three year old?
Go one, two, three, four, five, six, seven eight, I'm
missing somebody fourteen eleven, nine, three and three, and a
(26:04):
kneeborn what now?
Speaker 14 (26:06):
So Ava's around eight nine years old, and then the
little boys right after her eleven months difference.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
You stated that.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Virginia Gozales, the mother the starving little girl, and the
other missing girl was quote normal would go partying at
the clubs and the bars. Hey, I don't have a
problem with that party down, mommy, But what would she
ever mention who was taking care of the children while
(26:36):
she's at the bar.
Speaker 14 (26:37):
So from we understand, was that the kids, all the
kids were left with the grandmother of She has three
kids that belonged to one father and they were that
was who she was with the past seven years, and
so they were supposedly all living with the grandmother.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
You're saying, mommy, now out partying on a boat, drinking
straight out of a vague COMMUNI bottle ooh, there she
is in a bar? Why bother with a glass? Seriously,
why who needs a glass when you can drink straight
from the bottle. There's mommy chowing down on some free
toes and chips on a boat while her twenty nine
(27:19):
pound seven year old daughter is locked in a closet
at home. Okay, doctor Angie Arnold, I need to shrink
because why is she had on a boat parting while
her child is starving in a closet and two children
are missing?
Speaker 8 (27:35):
Right?
Speaker 9 (27:35):
And Nancy can she how can she just be so
unattached from all of these children that she's having. So
my question is why is she having all of these children?
And I'm sorry, is it to support her lifestyle?
Speaker 10 (27:50):
And where are the fathers of these children?
Speaker 9 (27:52):
We always have to ask where is We're always you know,
why does the mother taking care of them?
Speaker 8 (27:56):
Okay?
Speaker 9 (27:57):
Yeah, she is a horrible person that has done thanks
to at least two of her children that we know about.
Speaker 10 (28:03):
Where are the fathers of these children? And why are.
Speaker 9 (28:05):
Any of them involved? But Nancy, I don't believe she
should be out partying on a boat. I think that
when you have children, you should be at home taking
care of your children and not relying on someone else
to take care of them, because again we don't know
how children take that, but oftentimes when mothers are not around,
children do since a fear of abandonment when their mother
(28:28):
is not taking care of them.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
But to Ron, when Blake joining us as junct professor
University takes a school of law rowin, I'm not the
church lady. If mom wants to party, go ahead. If
mom wants to vape and smoke, have at it. The
issue is intent When she is out partying in her
club and bar finery, her child is at home starving
(28:55):
and two of them are missing.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Now that goes to intent.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
When I'm trying to prove felony child neglect to a jury,
that's when that type of video let's see the video
again comes in to play. I couldn't care less what
mommy whares or what Barshi goes to. Don't care, But
if your child is at home, starving in a closet,
suddenly your behavior, your actions during that time are relevant.
Speaker 12 (29:25):
Absolutely, I can tell you're thinking like a prosecutor. The
contrast between the images you're showing of these this child
and then her mother partying, it tells the whole story there,
and unfortunately many of users present one face to some people,
can be very charming to some people. And then we
hear about these horrible things happening at home.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Two Doctor Kimmel Crown's joining me, Chief Medical Examiner, Terran County.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
That's Fort Worth. Doctor Kimmel crowns.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
I've got one child starved almost beyond recognition, her bones
sticking out, you know, like they're visible through the skin.
I've got that child starved, almost dead, permanent brain injury.
I've got a missing little girl, and now I'm learning
(30:14):
from leam Marie there's another boy missing that is about one,
two three, fourth in the progression line of children. Leam
Marie joining us, a friend of mom Virginia Gonzalez. Did
you know that Ava was missing?
Speaker 13 (30:31):
No, we had no idea.
Speaker 14 (30:33):
Back in twenty eighteen, when I originally first met Virginia,
we only knew of.
Speaker 13 (30:40):
Three little boys.
Speaker 14 (30:41):
So after talking to mutual friends and all concluding that
she had Ava's hair shaved like a boy, she never
had Ava in her possess, I mean, she never let
us know that it was a girl. She had her
presented as a boy to all of us. So We're
(31:02):
all in shock. We didn't nobody knew that she had Ava.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Leanne, I don't understand this.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
So she showed you Ava, but this is the missing child,
not the starving child. Right, you saw Ava. And she
had her dressed like a boy with her head shaved.
Speaker 14 (31:21):
She had her hair, she had him hat, she had
a faid, He had a faid. I definitely confirmed this
with her landlord and roommates that she lived with back
in twenty eighteen. Everybody concluded that and confirmed it. It
was a little boy, it was not a Nobody knew
she had a little.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Girl, Leanne knowing the mother, why do you think she
shaved the little girl's head and passed her off as
a boy.
Speaker 14 (31:49):
I feel like that she had a anger issue with
the little girls because of the way her mother treated
her back when she was little, and I think that
she was taking it out on these little girls because
from all the evidence and information that I've collected, it's
all based on the girls.
Speaker 13 (32:10):
So you know, she sold the baby who was a
little girl that was just born in March. She starved
a re.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Reading whoa, whoa, whoa. My head is spinning. What did
you just say? She sold a baby.
Speaker 13 (32:22):
Yes, and CPS just found that baby.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
When okayhead, that's the newborn baby that was just born
in March, So that baby's been sold, yes, but see
how much does she get from the baby? From what
I heard twenty five k Christina Whyo tell me about
the newborn baby girl that just got sold.
Speaker 6 (32:40):
Well apparently from my investigations online, and none of this
has been confirmed yet, but she did have this newborn baby.
And according to all person who says that they are
a close relative of the family, she did have a
newborn baby.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
It was sold to a couple.
Speaker 6 (32:54):
So if that is in fact the case, there could
be a possibility that Aba Mariican sol Is was also sold,
and that's something that will have to be looked into,
because it would be my opic of us to think
that that possibility isn't out there.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
You know what, Chrisna Ariyah, I can only hope and
pray that she was sold and that she's alive and
being treated better than the little seven year old to
Leanne Marie, a friend of mom Virginia Gonzalez, why did
she sell her baby?
Speaker 14 (33:27):
I'm guessing financial issues, but at the same time, you know,
all the money was going downtown Sixth Street and at
the strip clubs. I mean, she was just making it
rain with money and buying bottles after bottles and buying
everybody buying the bar out. I mean, that's where I
seen the money going. I didn't see anything.
Speaker 13 (33:47):
Else that she had that.
Speaker 14 (33:49):
I mean, she didn't even have a vehicle, you know
what I mean. So, I mean, I think all the
money he was just going to party in. I don't
think it was ever to just take care of her
and the rest of the kids, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
I noticed in the party video she's got a Gucci bag.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Strapped around her front. Was that a fake? Was that
a fruity? A fake Gucci?
Speaker 14 (34:09):
From my understanding, everything that the police found in her
room was everything was name brand. I don't think it
was fake, but I do now know that a video
was taped back in May a year ago. She would
just cover up her stomach. I mean she would, honestly
(34:29):
now that I'm thinking, I'm thinking she was trying to
hide the pregnancy. Why because she was out there partying,
I mean on the boat party, which was in September
of twenty twenty four, my birthday. You can see in
the video she was kind of closed. She didn't take
the whole shot, and I got other, you know, videos
of footage of her putting the shots on the side
when people weren't watching.
Speaker 13 (34:50):
So I think she knew she.
Speaker 14 (34:52):
Was pregnant, but she just didn't want the other the
world to know that she was pregnant. So she would
literally buy bottles, get everybody drunk, and.
Speaker 13 (35:00):
I guess what then nobody notices anything.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Lan question, did she discuss openly that she was selling
the baby?
Speaker 13 (35:08):
No, no, ma'am.
Speaker 14 (35:10):
I found that out through the one of the children's families,
the ones that I've been speaking with since the very
beginning of the case, when it first started getting investigated.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Do you know who she sold the baby too?
Speaker 13 (35:24):
I do not know them personally. I just know that
it was a couple.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Well, I am, why did she keep having children if
she hated them so much.
Speaker 14 (35:31):
I don't think that she was having the children to
you know, just be this mother and to take care
of them. I think she was living off the benefits
the snap and the EBT and the fathers. I think
that was how she would hold some of these men,
you know, in her life, because a lot of them
didn't deal with the children. They only dealt with her,
(35:53):
and a lot of them didn't want the children, they
just wanted her. So I think that it was like
the kids were like a tool for them. She was
you know how they say there's womenizers. I think she
was like like that with the men, like where she
idolized men.
Speaker 13 (36:09):
Before her children.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Did anyone ever wonder who would be taking care of
the children while she's out partying.
Speaker 14 (36:16):
So from my friendship experience with her, she would come
and go. So one minute she was out here popping
bottles for about two or three months, and then she'll
go ghost for six months a year, and then she'll
pop out out of nowhere again. So it wasn't really
she was really just screet with the children. Like I said,
(36:36):
I only went to her that apartment where they found
the child that was starving and the other six children.
Speaker 13 (36:42):
I only went to that apartment one time, which.
Speaker 14 (36:44):
Was to go pick her up and she it was clean.
It was the fourteen year old was the only one there.
I didn't ask because every time I asked about the children,
it was that they were with her the grandmother because
her baby daddy was you know, crazy after her, So
she just left it tete over him so he would
be calm, is what she would tell.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Us crime stories with Nancy Grace. Now regarding the missing sister,
Gonzalez spouts off again in court and says a man
named Saul he Menez took Little Ava from her, and
(37:29):
the man was the girl's father, but she now claims
he was deported back to Mexico before he ment as
sister took Little Ava with her to Mexico as well.
I only hope and pray that's true. Although Austin police
say they are handling Little Ava's disappearance quote as a
(37:53):
homicide investigation, adding they quote don't have any evidence she
is alive. Gonzales in court reports she did not kill
her daughter.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Well.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Her bond has been raised to a quarter million dollars.
How do people have children over and over and over
seven children? We now believe and treat them like this.
Has nobody ever heard of a condom? Has nobody ever
heard of the birth control pill? Locking the child in
(38:31):
the closet and starving her one child already missing, believed
to be dead?
Speaker 1 (38:35):
What more do we know?
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Aliam Marie is joining us a friend of the ma
Virginia Gonzales, so you think that she's having the children
in order to get state benefits.
Speaker 14 (38:46):
I don't think it's just state benefits. I think, like
I said, it's more of a tool for the men
that she was in love with. I mean, I mean
some of them, some of the from what I'm understanding too,
is some of the kids. I mean, she don't even
know who the fathers is to some of the kids.
I mean, she was known for being in the club,
you know, with multiple men.
Speaker 13 (39:04):
So I mean I don't think that she used the
children just for the benefits.
Speaker 14 (39:08):
I think it was just more of tools to keep
the men in her life to help benefit her with
the money and the pain for this and pain for that.
Speaker 13 (39:16):
And that's what I think.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
To Darryl Parker joining me former Lieutenant Fannin County Sheriff's
Office at Blackfish Intel dot com, Daryl, how do we
go about finding the two missing children. You've got the
little girl missing, We've got an AH progress photo of her.
You've got her missing. You've got a nine year old
(39:39):
boy missing. I believe the little newborn girl that was
sold has been recovered, But how do you go about
finding the two missing children?
Speaker 3 (39:48):
Well, you know, Nancy, I see a lot of parallels
between this case and the Kathy Anthony case. And if
you recall, the thing that really bogged down that investigation
was Kathy Anthony's multiple stories where she gave the police
all these different versions of what happened to her child.
And so in this case, I think the mom has
(40:08):
given them some inconsistent stories. They're going to have to
track these down. And this is over a period of
time too. Seven years is a lot longer period of
time than when Kasey Anthony's child was missing, so it's
going to be a lot more difficult for law enforcement
to piece that together.
Speaker 8 (40:25):
But she couldn't have done all this without.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Other adults being aware of what was going on, at
least collaterally, So I think there are going to be
some other collateral witnesses that can help provide some information
to try and find the kids.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Ron and Blake.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
I don't understand how the mother can be getting government
benefits but they're not in school because the government does
know they exist and they're off school age.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
How does that work?
Speaker 12 (40:52):
This is not supposed to happen when you hear a
story like those. Multiple systems have failed. This mother was
purposely not taking her children to school, I'm sure because
the teachers would have seen something. She's not taking them
to their doctor's appointments because the doctors would have seen something.
Bar In Texas, every single adult is a mandatory reporter
(41:14):
of child abuse, not just those professionals I mentioned, neighbors,
family members. If anyone saw something, it's the law that
they had to report it.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Christina A Wya, what more do you know?
Speaker 6 (41:25):
Well, they're the woman who is online identifying as a
very close family member.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
She revealed that the newborn baby was sold.
Speaker 6 (41:34):
She also is revealing some of the details about what
Virginia was telling each one of the family members. It
kind of lines up with what Virginia Gonzalez's friend was
telling us about the story. She was saying she pitted
the two families against each other. She allegedly told one
family that the kids were in the care of the
other family. Her side of the family told her mom
the same thing, vice versa. This woman also claims that
(41:56):
the father of three of Virginia Gonzalez's children actually took
care of six of the children for two years until
he went to jail allegedly back in December, and that's
when she's saying that Virginia Gonzalez went and picked up
all the kids. She had kept the fourteen with her,
fourteen year old with her originally and then went back
and picked up all the kids. So that was in December,
(42:16):
which means that if she picked up the little seven
year old girl who they are calling re Rea in December,
then that means that little girl was suffering, most likely
six months of abuse before that nine to one one
call came in and they discovered her in the closet.
So apparently this woman is describing Virginia Gonzalez as very manipulative,
and it's crazy because they also say that she didn't
(42:38):
allow any of the children to go to school, and
there are no records of any of the children being
in school. And as for Abram Mari Gonzalez, there's no
medical records, there's no legal records. So this is a
really convoluted case. And if it's true what they're saying
about the baby being sold to a couple, that the
possibility of Abram Reganzalez being sold to a couple is
(42:59):
there as well, but it might have been sold.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
The baby might have.
Speaker 6 (43:01):
Been sold to a more nefarious outfit, which means we
could be looking at something concerning child trafficking, which we
hope that's not the case. But either way, there's a
lot of avenues that investigators need to go down, and
there are a lot of leads that they need to investigate.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Leam Marie, Now that you realize the extent of what
Virginia Gonzales was doing to her children, are you surprised?
Speaker 13 (43:26):
Very?
Speaker 14 (43:27):
I'm very shocked. I'm very disbelief. I just I can't
believe it. I mean, she put up this image. I
would have never, in my rights say to mind thought
that she was starving a kid or abusing the children
like that.
Speaker 13 (43:43):
I would have said something.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
To doctor Angela Arnold.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
How can you present one facade to the public and
live such a dark private life?
Speaker 9 (43:53):
You know what comes that comes from years and years
of abuse, Because people who have been abused learn how
to compartmentalize different things in their life. So this woman,
because of the purported abuse that she experienced as child,
has learned how to contain the different parts of her
(44:17):
life and separate them. It all stems from her abuse.
Speaker 15 (44:24):
Virginia Gonzalez, now facing two federal charges, has rejected a
plea offer the state offered Gonzalez a forty year prison
sentence in exchange for her guilty plea. She and her
attorney Gave Hernandez rejected the offer, calling it utterly absurd.
Gonzalez is still in custody. This case is set to
go to trial January twenty sixth, twenty twenty six. In
(44:48):
the meantime, police are still searching for another of Gonzalez's daughters,
Ava Marie Gonzalez. She was two at the time she
was last seen in December twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
If you know or think you know anything regarding these
missing children, please dial five one two five seven two
eight four seven seven repeat five one two five seven
two eight four seven seven.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
We wait as justice unfolds. Goodbye friend.
Speaker 8 (45:19):
Thanks
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Virginia Gonzalez, the mom of multiple children, including a seven
year old little girl found locked in a dark closet
that was barricaded down to about twenty six pounds, fed
one corn dog a day. If that, well, I'm looking
(00:27):
at her mugshot. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa? What happened to
those massive fake eyelashes? Where did they go?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Here she is in the raw and Miss Thing comes
into court and demands to speak. Of course, I could
not be happier. That's right, a mom of a little
girl just seven years old at twenty six pounds. I
think John David Wade did it five months for Pete's sake,
(00:58):
locked in a closet, catered in the closet, the closet
dark in their twenty four to seven three sixty five,
gets one corn dog a day if that speaks out
in court.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Now, before I.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Tell you what Miss Thing says in court, let me
jog your memory about what happened.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
On April third, twenty twenty five, Austin Police Department responded
to a nine to one to one call for a
seven year old child that was found locked in a
closet and starving. The seven year old was immediately taken
to a local hospital for medical treatment and it's currently recovering.
There were six other children found in the home that
appeared physically healthy.
Speaker 5 (01:43):
Police officers at an Austin apartment find a severely malnourished
seven year old girl who is barricaded in a bedroom closet.
The child is found soiled, weighing just twenty nine pounds,
and has been confined to a three foot by two
foot closet space for approximately a month. Investigators find the
child has been given one corn dog and a half
a cup of water a day. Doctors Adell Children's Medical
(02:04):
Center determined the little girl as suffering moderate to severe
cerebral atrophy from prolonged malnutrition, damage from which she will
never recover.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
And now new details emerging in a case out of Austin, Texas,
Authorities first learn a seven year old girl is locked
in a closet.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Who knows how long. She weighs twenty six pounds.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
When they go to inspect that, they find out her
sister has been missing four years. Mommy Virginia Gonzales spacing
charges including injury to a child, inflicting serious injury after
(02:50):
her daughter found locked in a closet and starving. But
it was only after that arrest police learned she never
reported the disappearance of the other child, a nine year
old little girl missing since December two thousand and seventeen.
Now many people have asked me online, why didn't the
(03:11):
grandmother do anything. Well, the grandmother did call police when
she went to the home and found the seven year
old in the closet, but no one called police about
the missing sister. And I want to remind you this
closet was less than five feet by two feet five
by two five feet tall, two feet wide.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
There were other objects in there. What other objects in there?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
No light, no ventilation, and it was barricaded by seventy
five pounds of boxes in front of it.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Can you imagine the life that.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Child had in a closet her living space about three
by one foot ten inches three by two let's be generous,
no light, no ventilation, barricaded on the outside by seventy five.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
Pound boxes in front of it.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
The little girl was soiled, of course, she had tee
teed and defecated. I said, twenty six, it's twenty nine pounds,
twenty nine pounds when she was rescued. She's already suffered
moderate to severe cerebral atrophy. That's permanent brain damage due
(04:28):
to prolonged nutrition. This is what we are just learning.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Quote.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
She will never recover, according to the state's affidavit. Now,
the other six children in the home from two to
fourteen told grandma they were ordered to lock her in
there because she had quote bladder control issues and was
quote always getting into stuff and quote eating things she
(04:56):
was not supposed to, what like food. A ten year
old brother told police he was told he had to
clean the closet because the little sister would have to
defecate and urinate in the closet. The little girl gets
just a corn dog a day and a half a
cup of water. How can a child survive day after day,
(05:18):
week after week, month after month, locked in a dark closet,
living off nothing, straight out to Christina Ohio joining US
investigative reporter Christina, this child locked in a closet.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
What happened?
Speaker 6 (05:33):
Well, according to the affadavit, when police got there, when
the caller called in for the welfare check and police
got there, they found a seven year old little girl
locked in a closet. It was barricaded by seventy five
pounds of boxes. They opened that door, they found that
child in there. She was soiled, surrounded by feces. She
was severely malnourished. She had dark spots all over her body,
(05:56):
which is a sign of severe malnourishment. They took her,
of course, to the hospital where she weighed twenty nine
pounds and medical personnel say that because of the prolonged
starvation of that little girl, that she will have permanent
brain damage.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Permanent brain damage caused by starvation. Joining me, Virginia Bagbee,
director of Child Help, National child abuse hotline Child Help.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Virginia, thank you for being with us.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Many people don't know that starving a child can result
in permanent brain damage.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Have you ever seen anything like it before, Virginia.
Speaker 7 (06:36):
We have definitely heard about cases like this, and they
happen all too often.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Doctor Kendall Crown's chief medical Examiner Terrent County.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
That's fort Worth, never a lack of business.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
He is the esteemed lecturer at the Burnett School of
Medicine at TCU and has just launched a hit podcast,
Mayhem and the More. Doctor Kendall Crowns thank you for
being with us. I know that you heard this, but
let me repeat it again. A seven year old little
girl barricaded in a locked bedroom closet lot from the outside, soiled,
(07:08):
a seven year old weigh just twenty nine pounds, confined
to a three by two foot closet. She is being
given at most one corn dog and a half cup
of water a day.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
She is now.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Suffering permanent, moderate to severe cerebral atrophy from prolonged malnutrition.
The dock states she will never recover. Could you interpret
that please?
Speaker 8 (07:40):
Certainly? So she's not being given much food or water.
I mean a corn dog and a cup of water
is not much for a child or anybody for that matter.
Her body is losing its depleting its muscle, depleting its stores,
so her muscles are wasting away, her bones are starting
to not form properly, and she's being starved. And part
(08:04):
of being starved results in your cardiac muscle or your
heart muscle mass starting to also fade away or go away,
which reduces your heart's ability to pump your blood, which
results in your kidney's failing and you go into kidney failure.
You also start having gut issues as well, and this
(08:24):
can all affect your brain and your brain's development, especially
in a child. So all those factors combined will result
in her having these issues that the doctors are describing.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
Now, there general crowns.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
A child of seven years old should weigh around seventy
pounds forty five to seventy pounds, Is that right?
Speaker 8 (08:44):
Yes, it would be about the average date of a
child at.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Seven, a seven year old average. Of course, they grow
in different ways. The average is fifty one pounds for
a seven year old child, but it ranges from forty
three to seventy. So where would you place twenty nine
pounds in that spectrum? Twenty nine pounds. If a seven
(09:14):
year old can weigh up to seventy three, she's not
even half the weight of a seven year old.
Speaker 8 (09:20):
Yeah, the way you're describing as a severely malnourished child,
So she's been starved for a prolonged period of time.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
How does that make a child brain damaged?
Speaker 8 (09:31):
It's from the body shutting down, the lack of food,
the lack of loss of muscle mass, the heart muscle
mass being lost and not circulating properly. The organs aren't
getting enough oxygenated blood and of course the brain's part
of this, so the brain's not getting proper oxygenation. Also,
the brain relies on glucose or sugars to grow and develop,
(09:53):
and it's not getting that as well, So the brain
is basically maldeveloped, not getting enough oxygen, so you get
brain damage.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Doctor Crowns.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Isn't it true that a child weighing twenty nine pounds typically,
and I'm basing this on charts of statistics that I prepared,
it's typically a twenty two month old child at twenty
nine pounds.
Speaker 8 (10:20):
Yes, I would be correct.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
A seven year old little girl, doctor Kymdall Crowns, that
should weigh seventy one pounds fifty one to seventy one
pounds weighs twenty nine pounds. With a child starving, what
would she be enduring on the floor of that locked closet,
Doctor Crowns.
Speaker 8 (10:41):
She would be enduring confusion, dehydration, or a very dry
mouth or throat. It'd be dry, she'd have trouble swallowing,
she'd be very tired in just not able to even move.
And then you would add on to that the fact
that without the food she'd start hallucinating, and then eventually
just slip into a coma and finally die.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Doctor Kendel crowns, would the child lose her hair? I
know that she's losing all muscle tone. Would she be
losing her hair? Would her faculties or hearing her sight?
Would that be intact? And what would her brain function
be lying on the floor of a dark closet starving.
Speaker 8 (11:24):
So yes, hair often will fall out in individuals who
are starved. Her brain function would be very minimal. She'd
be confused, even possibly hallucinating, and just completely fatigued and
not even feeling like moving.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Is it true?
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Doctor Kendal crowns that when someone has been starved for
a prolonged period of time, as in this case, when
you give them food, they can't even eat it.
Speaker 8 (11:48):
Yes, you can have what is called if you give
a person who's been starved, you feed them too quickly,
you can have what is called refeeding syndrome, where they
actually will the food intake it will cause so much
of a shock to their body that they can die.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
Guys, when police show up to a home, they find
six children and then a seventh locked in a closet
weighing just twenty nine pounds, but ironically, amazingly listen to
the condition of the other six children.
Speaker 5 (12:26):
Six other children in the apartment, ranging in age from
two to fourteen years old, are found to be an
apparently good physical condition. The apartment's pantry, refrigerator in freezer
are stocked with various food items. The oldest children were
given strict orders to put the little girl in the
closet because she had bladder control issues and she was
trying to eat things she wasn't supposed to. During the investigation,
(12:47):
police learned there's an eighth child, Ava Marie, who is
not in the home with the other children.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
We've got one starved child who has permanent brain damage.
A seven year old little girl weighing twenty nine pounds
locked in a closet. Now I've got a missing child too.
But to doctor angel Arnold joining me renowned psychiatrists out
of the Atlanta jurisdiction at angela Arnold MD dot com,
(13:12):
Doctor Angie, thank you for being with us.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Did you hear what was just reported?
Speaker 2 (13:18):
That there were six other children in the home seemingly healthy,
and they were encouraged to keep the little girl locked
in a closet, starving her because the little girl would
eat things she wasn't.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Supposed to eat.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
You know what, doctor Angie, I've heard every excuse in
the book about why parents starve the children. Oh, the
child ate a candy bar, I'll starve it. The child
eats too much, I'll starve it. The child misbehaved, I'll
starve it.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
I mean, there are a million.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Excuses I have heard as to why moms and dads starve.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
The baby dead.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
But yeah, we see six other children seemingly healthy, and.
Speaker 9 (14:04):
This is oftentimes what we do see in cases like this, Nancy,
So the other children need to be taken care of
as well as this goes on, because they have been
suffering something.
Speaker 10 (14:16):
Called Stockholm syndrome.
Speaker 9 (14:18):
They want to They are so scared of the abuse
that they see being heaped on this other child that
they that they go into it with their mother literally
to protect themselves. Okay, because Nancy, imagine how scared these
other children are. They never know who's going to be
(14:39):
next to be locked in that closet. So they're going
to listen to their mama. They're going to do what
she says. And I think that they could probably also
psychologically sort of break off from from feeling towards the
child that is being locked in the closet so that
(15:00):
they can protect themselves, because this is chaos that this.
Speaker 10 (15:04):
Family is living in.
Speaker 9 (15:05):
It is complete and utter chaos, and all of those
other children are suffering. They may not be branded brain damaged.
Speaker 10 (15:13):
Excuse me, they.
Speaker 9 (15:14):
Are not being you know, they're not being starved, but
they are also being damaged by the so called mother
of theirs.
Speaker 11 (15:24):
A missing child case takes a dark turn after a
disturbing discovery inside a family home.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
It brings to mind the case of another seven year
old child, Adrian Jones.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
There was just handed.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Down a multimillion dollar verdict against the state of Kentucky.
Adrian Jones was systematically starved, forced by his mother and father.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
To watch the rest of the family.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
They would put bars of soap in his mouth while
everyone else ate, force him to stand outside, chin deep
in a pool until finally the boy died.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
They killed the boy. Listen.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
Former bail bondsman Michael Jones is a wardy custody of
his son, Adrian Jones, and takes the boy away from
his mother For the next four years. Adrian is regularly starved,
rudely beaten, tortured taste and locked in a shower naked
for months. Adrian's brothers sisters do not suffer the same fate.
Adrian is singled out by his father and stepmother. When
the child dies, Michael Jones buys two pigs and doesn't
(16:42):
feed them. While the Adrian's body is left in the
shower for two weeks. When the pigs are starving, Michael
Jones feeds his son to the pigs. Michael and Heather
Jones plead guilty to first yegary murder and are serving
twenty five years to life.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
So in one closet, we've got the child starved and
a and back to you, doctor Anngie Arnold, you said
the other siblings are gonna have to be in treatment.
You're right, because they didn't just watch their sister starve
slowly to death. They were forced to keep her in
the closet themselves.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
They're going to go the rest of their lives.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Thinking they starve their sister and now she's got permanent
brain damage.
Speaker 10 (17:21):
Angie, that's exactly correct, Nancy.
Speaker 9 (17:23):
These children have been abused in a different way, and
it's all for a matter of control. It's to keep
all of those children in control, Nancy, because you know,
you can only imagine there's one mother all of these children.
If somebody got old enough to decide, you know, we
really shouldn't be treating this person this way, they could
(17:44):
possibly escape or something like this.
Speaker 10 (17:47):
Right, but that mother.
Speaker 9 (17:49):
Is making sure that they are so terrified. They are
so terrified in the home that they live in, and
she and she feeds them so that they have this
odd relationship where with the mother where they still need.
Speaker 10 (18:03):
Her, but they're scared of her, so that none of
them will go against Charlotte Too.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Brown Blake joining US agent, Professor of University Texas School
of Law, Chief Legal Officer Texas Advocacy Project, browin thank.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
You for being with us.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I've seen it many many times, like in Adrian Jones,
like in this case, for one child out of the
whole group is singled out and they're the ones that starved.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
That child is the one that's abused.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I don't understand the phenomena, but I accept it because
I've seen it over and over, even cases that I prosecuted,
other children would go unscathed while the one child would
end up dead.
Speaker 12 (18:50):
The idea that abuse is all about power and control
really helps explain this dynamic. This person is not out
of control. They're being very calculated and systematic in who
they abuse and how so all of those children experienced abuse,
just in different ways.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Not only do we have a child starved your death,
languishing on the floor of locked closet, we have a
missing child.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Listen.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
During the investigation, police discovered that there was an eighth
child who was not found inside the home. The missing
nine year old child was identified as Ava Marie Gonzalez.
Missing persons Detectives determined that Ava was last seen in
December twenty seventeen, when she was two years old and
in the custody of her mother, Virginia Marie Gonzalez.
Speaker 5 (19:41):
Learning there should be eight children in the apartment, not
just the seven they found, police opened an investigation and
quickly determined Ava Marie has not been seen by family
or friends since she was two years old in twenty seventeen,
in custody of her mother, Virginia Gonzalez. Considering the condition
of Ava's seven year old sister when she was found,
Austin police detected are very concerned about Ava's welfare.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
So they've got six children seemingly healthy. You've got one
child starved locked in a closet, and now you've got
a missing child. Joining me is a special guest. This
is Leanne Marie, friend of the children's mother, Virginia Gonzalez. Leanne,
thank you for being with us. Yes, ma'am, Leanne Marie.
(20:25):
Tell me about Virginia Gonzalez.
Speaker 13 (20:28):
So, from what I know, she was just a normal person.
Speaker 14 (20:34):
I mean, honestly, she never really had her kids with her,
like you know, presence. The only one that I've seen
with her in the past year was the oldest one,
the fourteen year old. Besides that, we never knew that
she had, you know, the little girl.
Speaker 13 (20:53):
We only knew of boys.
Speaker 14 (20:55):
So she was just a typical person, partying out in
the clubs and the bars. I mean, she she was
just she never lived like she even had nine eight
nine kids.
Speaker 13 (21:10):
Very very you're scaring me.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Now there's mommy, Hi mom, Yeah, but there she is,
party down mom. Where are your children right now? William
Marine just said something that scared me. Okay, hold on,
So I know that there are six children in the home,
healthy ish, one starved in a closet, and one missing.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
That's eight.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
But you mentioned nine, the possibility of a ninth child.
Speaker 13 (21:36):
Yes, ma'am, a very ninth child.
Speaker 14 (21:39):
Yes, So it's right now they're saying that this night child,
he is not He does not have a social social
security here in Texas, so he's not registered here in Texas.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Okay, Darryl Parker, I need you and I need you
now there's another missing child.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Did you hear that?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Darryl Parker, former Lieutenant Fanning County Sheriff's Office, former marine,
former Texas police officer.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Help me. So we're learning right now that there's a
ninth child that's in the wind. Nobody knows how old.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
The child is, where it is, it doesn't have a
Texas Social Security number.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Yeah, and Nancy, that's pretty concerning. I know that the
mom has already made several statements to police that are
inconsistent about the child that is missing already that they
already know about. And it'll be interesting to see if
some follow up questioning can reveal anything about this ninth child.
Speaker 8 (22:34):
Possible ninth child.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Virginia Bagby joining us from Child Help National abuse hotline
going into this right now. I knew that there were
eight children, six in the home one Starve near death
with brain damage and one missing since twenty seventeen. Now
I'm hearing about child number nine. Is that child dead?
(22:56):
I mean, what do you do when you get a
call like this? The child help?
Speaker 7 (23:00):
Well, this is a really difficult one. I would encourage
somebody to reach out to the local hospitals potentially where
all the other children have been born, to see if
they have any record. This is very concerning to have
two children missing. Now these other children have probably are
aware that they have siblings that are missing. Add that
to the terror they've been experiencing.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
In court, Miss thing Virginia Gonzalez states, I instructed them
not to let her out of the bedroom, but not
the closet, so she would basically blame the other children.
Quote we'd catch her in the restroom doing something bad.
What what would she be doing in the bathroom at
(23:54):
seven years old? Quote it was easier for my sons
to watch her that way.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Are you doing?
Speaker 2 (24:01):
What was grandma doing? Why weren't they watching her? Why
would you leave a ten year old boy in charge
of six other children? Text messages uncover Gonzala is texting
one of her children. Quote, clean the closet, then throw
her back in. In the affidavit we obtained, the detective
describes a child, the fat in her cheeks was nonexistent.
(24:22):
Her body had used those stores to sustain itself. Now,
wait a minute, Gonzales speaks more. She insists the children
had quote adequate food. I don't dispute I was wrong.
I know what I've done is wrong. I want to
fight for my kids. Are you serious? I'm ready to
(24:44):
do whatever I need to keep my children in my life.
Well you know what, they could be your pen pals
from behind bars woman.
Speaker 11 (24:52):
A shocking discovery inside a home leads police to investigate
a long buried secret.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Okay, Liam Marie is joining us. A friend of the mom,
Virginia Gozalz MS murray, thank you because what you've.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Just said could save a child's life.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yes, mom, However, do you know Leanne is the ninth
child older younger girl.
Speaker 14 (25:16):
Boy, it's a boy, and he is around age nine
to ten years old. So she has a fourteen and eleven,
A ten, A nine, a seven. I know she has
two three year olds the newborn. So there's there's there's
nine from what I'm hearing right now.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Okay, hold on, let me have this up.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
There's a fourteen year old, an eleven year old, a
ten year old, A nine year old is the boy
that you think is missing? A seven year old is
a little girl starved in the closet? Two three year old?
Go one, two, three, four, five, six, seven eight, I'm
missing somebody fourteen eleven, nine, three and three, and a
(26:04):
kneeborn what now?
Speaker 14 (26:06):
So Ava's around eight nine years old, and then the
little boys right after her eleven months difference.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
You stated that.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Virginia Gozales, the mother the starving little girl, and the
other missing girl was quote normal would go partying at
the clubs and the bars. Hey, I don't have a
problem with that party down, mommy, But what would she
ever mention who was taking care of the children while
(26:36):
she's at the bar.
Speaker 14 (26:37):
So from we understand, was that the kids, all the
kids were left with the grandmother of She has three
kids that belonged to one father and they were that
was who she was with the past seven years, and
so they were supposedly all living with the grandmother.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
You're saying, mommy, now out partying on a boat, drinking
straight out of a vague COMMUNI bottle ooh, there she
is in a bar? Why bother with a glass? Seriously,
why who needs a glass when you can drink straight
from the bottle. There's mommy chowing down on some free
toes and chips on a boat while her twenty nine
(27:19):
pound seven year old daughter is locked in a closet
at home. Okay, doctor Angie Arnold, I need to shrink
because why is she had on a boat parting while
her child is starving in a closet and two children
are missing?
Speaker 8 (27:35):
Right?
Speaker 9 (27:35):
And Nancy can she how can she just be so
unattached from all of these children that she's having. So
my question is why is she having all of these children?
And I'm sorry, is it to support her lifestyle?
Speaker 10 (27:50):
And where are the fathers of these children?
Speaker 9 (27:52):
We always have to ask where is We're always you know,
why does the mother taking care of them?
Speaker 8 (27:56):
Okay?
Speaker 9 (27:57):
Yeah, she is a horrible person that has done thanks
to at least two of her children that we know about.
Speaker 10 (28:03):
Where are the fathers of these children? And why are.
Speaker 9 (28:05):
Any of them involved? But Nancy, I don't believe she
should be out partying on a boat. I think that
when you have children, you should be at home taking
care of your children and not relying on someone else
to take care of them, because again we don't know
how children take that, but oftentimes when mothers are not around,
children do since a fear of abandonment when their mother
(28:28):
is not taking care of them.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
But to Ron, when Blake joining us as junct professor
University takes a school of law rowin, I'm not the
church lady. If mom wants to party, go ahead. If
mom wants to vape and smoke, have at it. The
issue is intent When she is out partying in her
club and bar finery, her child is at home starving
(28:55):
and two of them are missing.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Now that goes to intent.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
When I'm trying to prove felony child neglect to a jury,
that's when that type of video let's see the video
again comes in to play. I couldn't care less what
mommy whares or what Barshi goes to. Don't care, But
if your child is at home, starving in a closet,
suddenly your behavior, your actions during that time are relevant.
Speaker 12 (29:25):
Absolutely, I can tell you're thinking like a prosecutor. The
contrast between the images you're showing of these this child
and then her mother partying, it tells the whole story there,
and unfortunately many of users present one face to some people,
can be very charming to some people. And then we
hear about these horrible things happening at home.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Two Doctor Kimmel Crown's joining me, Chief Medical Examiner, Terran County.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
That's Fort Worth. Doctor Kimmel crowns.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
I've got one child starved almost beyond recognition, her bones
sticking out, you know, like they're visible through the skin.
I've got that child starved, almost dead, permanent brain injury.
I've got a missing little girl, and now I'm learning
(30:14):
from leam Marie there's another boy missing that is about one,
two three, fourth in the progression line of children. Leam
Marie joining us, a friend of mom Virginia Gonzalez. Did
you know that Ava was missing?
Speaker 13 (30:31):
No, we had no idea.
Speaker 14 (30:33):
Back in twenty eighteen, when I originally first met Virginia,
we only knew of.
Speaker 13 (30:40):
Three little boys.
Speaker 14 (30:41):
So after talking to mutual friends and all concluding that
she had Ava's hair shaved like a boy, she never
had Ava in her possess, I mean, she never let
us know that it was a girl. She had her
presented as a boy to all of us. So We're
(31:02):
all in shock. We didn't nobody knew that she had Ava.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Leanne, I don't understand this.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
So she showed you Ava, but this is the missing child,
not the starving child. Right, you saw Ava. And she
had her dressed like a boy with her head shaved.
Speaker 14 (31:21):
She had her hair, she had him hat, she had
a faid, He had a faid. I definitely confirmed this
with her landlord and roommates that she lived with back
in twenty eighteen. Everybody concluded that and confirmed it. It
was a little boy, it was not a Nobody knew
she had a little.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
Girl, Leanne knowing the mother, why do you think she
shaved the little girl's head and passed her off as
a boy.
Speaker 14 (31:49):
I feel like that she had a anger issue with
the little girls because of the way her mother treated
her back when she was little, and I think that
she was taking it out on these little girls because
from all the evidence and information that I've collected, it's
all based on the girls.
Speaker 13 (32:10):
So you know, she sold the baby who was a
little girl that was just born in March. She starved
a re.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Reading whoa, whoa, whoa. My head is spinning. What did
you just say? She sold a baby.
Speaker 13 (32:22):
Yes, and CPS just found that baby.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
When okayhead, that's the newborn baby that was just born
in March, So that baby's been sold, yes, but see
how much does she get from the baby? From what
I heard twenty five k Christina Whyo tell me about
the newborn baby girl that just got sold.
Speaker 6 (32:40):
Well apparently from my investigations online, and none of this
has been confirmed yet, but she did have this newborn baby.
And according to all person who says that they are
a close relative of the family, she did have a
newborn baby.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
It was sold to a couple.
Speaker 6 (32:54):
So if that is in fact the case, there could
be a possibility that Aba Mariican sol Is was also sold,
and that's something that will have to be looked into,
because it would be my opic of us to think
that that possibility isn't out there.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
You know what, Chrisna Ariyah, I can only hope and
pray that she was sold and that she's alive and
being treated better than the little seven year old to
Leanne Marie, a friend of mom Virginia Gonzalez, why did
she sell her baby?
Speaker 14 (33:27):
I'm guessing financial issues, but at the same time, you know,
all the money was going downtown Sixth Street and at
the strip clubs. I mean, she was just making it
rain with money and buying bottles after bottles and buying
everybody buying the bar out. I mean, that's where I
seen the money going. I didn't see anything.
Speaker 13 (33:47):
Else that she had that.
Speaker 14 (33:49):
I mean, she didn't even have a vehicle, you know
what I mean. So, I mean, I think all the
money he was just going to party in. I don't
think it was ever to just take care of her
and the rest of the kids, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
I noticed in the party video she's got a Gucci bag.
Speaker 1 (34:02):
Strapped around her front. Was that a fake? Was that
a fruity? A fake Gucci?
Speaker 14 (34:09):
From my understanding, everything that the police found in her
room was everything was name brand. I don't think it
was fake, but I do now know that a video
was taped back in May a year ago. She would
just cover up her stomach. I mean she would, honestly
(34:29):
now that I'm thinking, I'm thinking she was trying to
hide the pregnancy. Why because she was out there partying,
I mean on the boat party, which was in September
of twenty twenty four, my birthday. You can see in
the video she was kind of closed. She didn't take
the whole shot, and I got other, you know, videos
of footage of her putting the shots on the side
when people weren't watching.
Speaker 13 (34:50):
So I think she knew she.
Speaker 14 (34:52):
Was pregnant, but she just didn't want the other the
world to know that she was pregnant. So she would
literally buy bottles, get everybody drunk, and.
Speaker 13 (35:00):
I guess what then nobody notices anything.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
Lan question, did she discuss openly that she was selling
the baby?
Speaker 13 (35:08):
No, no, ma'am.
Speaker 14 (35:10):
I found that out through the one of the children's families,
the ones that I've been speaking with since the very
beginning of the case, when it first started getting investigated.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Do you know who she sold the baby too?
Speaker 13 (35:24):
I do not know them personally. I just know that
it was a couple.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Well, I am, why did she keep having children if
she hated them so much.
Speaker 14 (35:31):
I don't think that she was having the children to
you know, just be this mother and to take care
of them. I think she was living off the benefits
the snap and the EBT and the fathers. I think
that was how she would hold some of these men,
you know, in her life, because a lot of them
didn't deal with the children. They only dealt with her,
(35:53):
and a lot of them didn't want the children, they
just wanted her. So I think that it was like
the kids were like a tool for them. She was
you know how they say there's womenizers. I think she
was like like that with the men, like where she
idolized men.
Speaker 13 (36:09):
Before her children.
Speaker 2 (36:10):
Did anyone ever wonder who would be taking care of
the children while she's out partying.
Speaker 14 (36:16):
So from my friendship experience with her, she would come
and go. So one minute she was out here popping
bottles for about two or three months, and then she'll
go ghost for six months a year, and then she'll
pop out out of nowhere again. So it wasn't really
she was really just screet with the children. Like I said,
(36:36):
I only went to her that apartment where they found
the child that was starving and the other six children.
Speaker 13 (36:42):
I only went to that apartment one time, which.
Speaker 14 (36:44):
Was to go pick her up and she it was clean.
It was the fourteen year old was the only one there.
I didn't ask because every time I asked about the children,
it was that they were with her the grandmother because
her baby daddy was you know, crazy after her, So
she just left it tete over him so he would
be calm, is what she would tell.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Us crime stories with Nancy Grace. Now regarding the missing sister,
Gonzalez spouts off again in court and says a man
named Saul he Menez took Little Ava from her, and
(37:29):
the man was the girl's father, but she now claims
he was deported back to Mexico before he ment as
sister took Little Ava with her to Mexico as well.
I only hope and pray that's true. Although Austin police
say they are handling Little Ava's disappearance quote as a
(37:53):
homicide investigation, adding they quote don't have any evidence she
is alive. Gonzales in court reports she did not kill
her daughter.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Well.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Her bond has been raised to a quarter million dollars.
How do people have children over and over and over
seven children? We now believe and treat them like this.
Has nobody ever heard of a condom? Has nobody ever
heard of the birth control pill? Locking the child in
(38:31):
the closet and starving her one child already missing, believed
to be dead?
Speaker 1 (38:35):
What more do we know?
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Aliam Marie is joining us a friend of the ma
Virginia Gonzales, so you think that she's having the children
in order to get state benefits.
Speaker 14 (38:46):
I don't think it's just state benefits. I think, like
I said, it's more of a tool for the men
that she was in love with. I mean, I mean
some of them, some of the from what I'm understanding too,
is some of the kids. I mean, she don't even
know who the fathers is to some of the kids.
I mean, she was known for being in the club,
you know, with multiple men.
Speaker 13 (39:04):
So I mean I don't think that she used the
children just for the benefits.
Speaker 14 (39:08):
I think it was just more of tools to keep
the men in her life to help benefit her with
the money and the pain for this and pain for that.
Speaker 13 (39:16):
And that's what I think.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
To Darryl Parker joining me former Lieutenant Fannin County Sheriff's
Office at Blackfish Intel dot com, Daryl, how do we
go about finding the two missing children. You've got the
little girl missing, We've got an AH progress photo of her.
You've got her missing. You've got a nine year old
(39:39):
boy missing. I believe the little newborn girl that was
sold has been recovered, But how do you go about
finding the two missing children?
Speaker 3 (39:48):
Well, you know, Nancy, I see a lot of parallels
between this case and the Kathy Anthony case. And if
you recall, the thing that really bogged down that investigation
was Kathy Anthony's multiple stories where she gave the police
all these different versions of what happened to her child.
And so in this case, I think the mom has
(40:08):
given them some inconsistent stories. They're going to have to
track these down. And this is over a period of
time too. Seven years is a lot longer period of
time than when Kasey Anthony's child was missing, so it's
going to be a lot more difficult for law enforcement
to piece that together.
Speaker 8 (40:25):
But she couldn't have done all this without.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Other adults being aware of what was going on, at
least collaterally, So I think there are going to be
some other collateral witnesses that can help provide some information
to try and find the kids.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Ron and Blake.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
I don't understand how the mother can be getting government
benefits but they're not in school because the government does
know they exist and they're off school age.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
How does that work?
Speaker 12 (40:52):
This is not supposed to happen when you hear a
story like those. Multiple systems have failed. This mother was
purposely not taking her children to school, I'm sure because
the teachers would have seen something. She's not taking them
to their doctor's appointments because the doctors would have seen something.
Bar In Texas, every single adult is a mandatory reporter
(41:14):
of child abuse, not just those professionals I mentioned, neighbors,
family members. If anyone saw something, it's the law that
they had to report it.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Christina A Wya, what more do you know?
Speaker 6 (41:25):
Well, they're the woman who is online identifying as a
very close family member.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
She revealed that the newborn baby was sold.
Speaker 6 (41:34):
She also is revealing some of the details about what
Virginia was telling each one of the family members. It
kind of lines up with what Virginia Gonzalez's friend was
telling us about the story. She was saying she pitted
the two families against each other. She allegedly told one
family that the kids were in the care of the
other family. Her side of the family told her mom
the same thing, vice versa. This woman also claims that
(41:56):
the father of three of Virginia Gonzalez's children actually took
care of six of the children for two years until
he went to jail allegedly back in December, and that's
when she's saying that Virginia Gonzalez went and picked up
all the kids. She had kept the fourteen with her,
fourteen year old with her originally and then went back
and picked up all the kids. So that was in December,
(42:16):
which means that if she picked up the little seven
year old girl who they are calling re Rea in December,
then that means that little girl was suffering, most likely
six months of abuse before that nine to one one
call came in and they discovered her in the closet.
So apparently this woman is describing Virginia Gonzalez as very manipulative,
and it's crazy because they also say that she didn't
(42:38):
allow any of the children to go to school, and
there are no records of any of the children being
in school. And as for Abram Mari Gonzalez, there's no
medical records, there's no legal records. So this is a
really convoluted case. And if it's true what they're saying
about the baby being sold to a couple, that the
possibility of Abram Reganzalez being sold to a couple is
(42:59):
there as well, but it might have been sold.
Speaker 1 (43:01):
The baby might have.
Speaker 6 (43:01):
Been sold to a more nefarious outfit, which means we
could be looking at something concerning child trafficking, which we
hope that's not the case. But either way, there's a
lot of avenues that investigators need to go down, and
there are a lot of leads that they need to investigate.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Leam Marie, Now that you realize the extent of what
Virginia Gonzales was doing to her children, are you surprised?
Speaker 13 (43:26):
Very?
Speaker 14 (43:27):
I'm very shocked. I'm very disbelief. I just I can't
believe it. I mean, she put up this image. I
would have never, in my rights say to mind thought
that she was starving a kid or abusing the children
like that.
Speaker 13 (43:43):
I would have said something.
Speaker 1 (43:44):
To doctor Angela Arnold.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
How can you present one facade to the public and
live such a dark private life?
Speaker 9 (43:53):
You know what comes that comes from years and years
of abuse, Because people who have been abused learn how
to compartmentalize different things in their life. So this woman,
because of the purported abuse that she experienced as child,
has learned how to contain the different parts of her
(44:17):
life and separate them. It all stems from her abuse.
Speaker 15 (44:24):
Virginia Gonzalez, now facing two federal charges, has rejected a
plea offer the state offered Gonzalez a forty year prison
sentence in exchange for her guilty plea. She and her
attorney Gave Hernandez rejected the offer, calling it utterly absurd.
Gonzalez is still in custody. This case is set to
go to trial January twenty sixth, twenty twenty six. In
(44:48):
the meantime, police are still searching for another of Gonzalez's daughters,
Ava Marie Gonzalez. She was two at the time she
was last seen in December twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2 (44:59):
If you know or think you know anything regarding these
missing children, please dial five one two five seven two
eight four seven seven repeat five one two five seven
two eight four seven seven.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
We wait as justice unfolds. Goodbye friend.
Speaker 8 (45:19):
Thanks
Host
Nancy Grace
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Betrayal: Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a brand new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack. And make sure to check out Seasons 1-4 of Betrayal, along with Betrayal Weekly Season 1.