Police searching for missing girl after mother arrested for allegedly locking sibling in closet
Police in Texas said they are looking for a missing 9-year-old girl who hasn't been seen in over seven years whose disappearance was uncovered after the child's mother was arrested for allegedly locking her 7-year-old daughter in a closet for weeks.
Virginia Marie Gonzales, 33, of Austin, was arrested on a charge of injury to a child after the 7-year-old girl was found "locked in a closet and starving" last month, according to Austin Detective Russell Constable.
The girl's grandmother called police after she found the child "malnourished, soiled and barricaded in a bedroom closet" on April 3, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. The grandmother had gone to the apartment after Gonzales was arrested for marijuana possession, according to the affidavit.
Gonzales allegedly barricaded her child in the closet for a month, feeding her a hot dog or corn dog in the morning and evening and half a cup of water daily, according to the affidavit.
The girl was immediately taken to a local hospital for medical treatment, where she was found to weigh 29 pounds and had signs of malnourishment, according to the affidavit. She is currently recovering, Constable said during a press briefing Tuesday, calling the case "emotionally difficult."
There were six other children in the home between the ages of 2 and 14 who appeared to be physically healthy, police said. Though during the investigation, authorities learned that there was an eighth child, Ava Marie Gonzales, who was not inside the home and had not been seen by family or friends since December 2017, when she was 2 and in the custody of her mother, police said.
"Austin Police Department's missing person detectives are seriously concerned about Ava's welfare, given the circumstances in which Ava's 7-year-old sibling was found," Constable said.
ABC News reached out to Gonzales' attorney and did not immediately receive a response. She is being held in the Travis County Correctional Complex on $75,000 bond and has a court hearing scheduled next week, online jail and court records show.
Ava has not been reported missing by her mother or anyone else, Constable said.
Constable said the girl's mother has "provided conflicting information to many different family members" about Ava's whereabouts, and police are asking for anyone who may have seen her or knows where she is to come forward.
Police have not identified her father, he said.
Constable said Gonzales has provided police some information regarding her missing child that they are trying to corroborate.
"We're hoping to get some more information and try to figure out where she is," he said.
As far as Austin police are aware, none of Gonzales' children are enrolled in school, Constable said.
Police released an age-progressed photo of Ava, who has brown hair and brown eyes.
Anyone with information is asked to email ava@austintexas.gov or can anonymously call Crime Stoppers at 512-572-8477.
ABC News' Amanda Morris contributed to this report.
