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Guatemalan migrant Carlos Garcia Rodriguez, who was on the run for nearly a week after Maria Gonzalez, an 11-year-old Pasadena girl, was found dead under her bed, has reportedly been caught in Louisiana on Saturday, August 19.
Carlos Garcia Rodriguez, who was identified as a person of interest in the gruesome murder of Maria Gonzalez, was on the run for nearly a week after authorities questioned him at his Houston Pasadena apartment on Monday, August 14.
The 11-year-old Pasadena girl was found strangled and s*xually assaulted under her bed by her father on Saturday, August 12. Investigators said that a key found near Maria's body led them to 18-year-old Carlos Garcia Rodriguez, who lived in the same apartment building as the victim.
Authorities, who were awaiting DNA results said that they interviewed the suspect, who left his apartment on Monday afternoon and had not been seen for a week.
A day after Carlos Garcia Rodriguez was named a person of interest in the case, the suspect reportedly surrendered to the police on Saturday in Louisiana. Authorities said that the suspect also confessed to the killing.
Carlos Garcia Rodriguez arrested on capital murder charges in the death of Maria Gonzalez
On Saturday, August 19, the authorities said that Carlos Garcia-Rodriguez was located and taken into custody on capital murder charges in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he is awaiting extradition to Texas.
The suspect who had been missing after police interviewed him about the case on Monday, August 14, had reportedly been living in Pasadena for three to four weeks after entering the United States through El Paso in January 2023.
According to Click 2 Houston, before moving to Pasadena, Carlos Garcia Rodriguez was reportedly living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with people that sponsored him to be released by immigration.
The suspect reportedly surrendered to the police in Louisiana on Saturday after he was named the person of interest in the case. Maria Gonzalez, who had moved to Houston Pasadena from Guatemala with her father four months ago, was home alone at the time of the incident.
Maria’s father, Carmelo Gonzalez said on the day of his daughter’s murder, he left for work around 9:45 a.m. and about 15 minutes later got a text from the girl saying someone was knocking on their door.
Maria’s father told her not to open the door and grew concerned after she failed to pick up his call a while later. Upon returning home, Maria’s father found her stuffed inside a plastic trash bag, placed inside a laundry basket, and concealed under a bed inside the home. Authorities said that the girl was s*xually assaulted before being strangled to death.
Maria Gonzalez's family issue statement after the arrest of Carlos Garcia-Rodriguez
Shortly after the suspect in the murder was arrested, in a statement To KHOU, the victim’s family said:
“This arrest has brought the family and community some peace. We are extremely thankful that he cannot cause this type of pain to anybody again. I ask those who are in charge to give us justice. May he be burdened with the full width of the law for what he has done to my daughter.”
Maria Gonzalez reportedly came to the US with her father four years ago, while her mother stayed behind in Guatemala to look after her younger sibling.
