An 11-year-old girl was found dead underneath her bed in her Texas home on Saturday while her father was at work, according to USA Today.
Officers were dispatched to a home after a phone call was made that a girl was not breathing, USA Today reported. The Pasadena Police Department found Maria Gonzalez Xitumul dead from strangulation and blunt force head and neck trauma. (RELATED: Man Shoots And Kills Eight-Year-Old Riding Scooter Because The Child Was Too Loud, Witnesses Say)
Maria Gonzalez Xitumul was found hidden under the bed in her bedroom, USA Today reported.
“We’re doing our level best to get out and solve this crime,” Pasadena Police Department Police Chief Josh Brugger told reporters, according to the outlet. “As a parent of an almost-10-year-old myself, it certainly is a cause for concern.”
Additional investigation showed that the child was sexually assaulted.
Pasadena police and fire department personnel flash emergency lights and blast their sirens in front of Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, California on April 9, 2020, in a show of appreciation for healthcare workers. (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
Carmelo Gonzalez left for work at 9:45 a.m. and received a message from his daughter at 10 a.m. claiming an unknown person was knocking at the front door, USA Today reported. Carmelo Gonzalez contacted his daughter’s aunt and uncle who also live within the apartment complex to check in on Maria, but they could not contact her.
Carmelo Gonzalez is not considered a suspect by police, according to USA Today.
Last month, a nine-year-old girl was killed in a drive-by shooting after it was believed a relative of hers robbed the suspects. The suspects targeted the home and a bullet struck and killed the child.
An eight-year-old girl was allegedly shot and killed earlier in August because the suspect thought the child, Serabi Medina, had been playing outside too loudly on her scooter. The alleged gunman lived across the street from the park where the girl had been playing. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.
On Aug. 16, a New Zealand mother killed her three daughters after alleging she was suffering from postpartum depression. The mother suffocated her twin two-year-old daughters and her six-year-old daughter with pillows.