Police in southeast Texas are investigating after they say someone sexually assaulted and strangled an 11-year old Pasadena girl found hidden under her bed in her home over the weekend.
Pasadena Police Department Police Chief Josh Brugger said officers found the girl’s body on Saturday inside an apartment after they were dispatched to the home just after 3 p.m. for a report of a girl not breathing.
Officer and paramedics responded to the scene where the 11-year-old girl was pronounced dead, Brugger said during a press conference on Monday.
The victim has been identified a Maria Gonzalez Xitumul. The Harris County Medical Examiner reported Maria died as a result of asphyxia due to strangulation and blunt force head and neck trauma.
Brugger said the child was also sexually assaulted.
The case is being investigated as a criminal homicide.
As of Tuesday, no arrest had been made in the child’s slaying and police continued to search for her killer.
“We’re doing our level best to get out and solve this crime,” Brugger told reporters. “As a parent of an almost-10-year-old myself, it certainly is a cause for concern.”
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A knock at the front door
The apartment, which Brugger said is relatively small, is about 13 miles southeast of downtown Houston, and consists of a “fairly close-knit community” and is “a relatively quiet complex.”
The chief said Maria and her 32-year-old father Carmelo Gonzalez, lived alone in the apartment and her dad left the home for work about 9:45 a.m. the day of the killing. Shortly after 10 a.m., he said, Maria messaged her father there was unknown person knocking at the front door.
“That was last communication he had with his daughter,” Brugger said.
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Police: Father is not a suspect
Soon after, Maria’s father asked family members who also lived in the apartment complex to check on her, Brugger said.
“An aunt and uncle went into the apartment and did a cursory check and were unable to locate her,” the chief said.
Police said her father came home from work about 3 p.m. and found his daughter’s body concealed underneath the bed in her bedroom − purposely hidden.
Brugger said the father is not a suspect in the capital murder case.
‘A very violent crime’
Maria was not yet enrolled in school, Brugger said. She and her family, originally from Guatemala, had recently moved to Pasadena from Austin, he said, and had lived in Florida before that.
“It’s certainly a very violent crime,” said Brugger, who called the circumstances of the case brutal.
The case remained under investigation on Tuesday.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact Pasadena police.
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @nataliealund.
