Last Saturday in Pasadena, Texas, an 11-year-old girl named Maria Gonzalez was raped, strangled to death and put in a trash bag. The horrifying incident unfolded shortly after Gonzalez had sent a text message to her father, alerting him to a stranger knocking on their front door.
Tragically, Maria Gonzalez’s father came home from work later that day only to find his daughter’s lifeless body concealed within a trash bag under the bed.
Following the gruesome discovery, authorities apprehended an 18-year-old named Juan Carlos Garcia-Rodriguez in Shreveport, Louisiana. He is currently awaiting extradition to Texas to face the charges associated with this heinous crime.
Police were able to identify the perpetrator behind the tragic incident through a crucial piece of evidence found at the scene—a key discovered near the lifeless body of the young girl at a Pasadena apartment complex.
Upon examination, law enforcement officials linked the key to the unit where Garcia-Rodriguez had been residing within the same apartment complex.
It has been revealed that Garcia-Rodriguez had entered the United States illegally by crossing the border into El Paso from Guatemala back in January.
Border Patrol agents promptly released Garcia-Rodriguez to his sponsors in Louisiana, tragically, allowing him to go on to commit the heinous crime of sexually assaulting and murdering a child.
KTRK reported:
The man accused of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl in Pasadena before allegedly strangling her to death was arrested out of state, according to police.
On Saturday, authorities confirmed that the Shreveport Louisiana Police Department arrested 18-year-old Juan Carlos Garcia-Rodriguez, who is awaiting to be extradited back to Texas.
Sources told Eyewitness News that Garcia-Rodriguez “gave a full confession” after he was arrested in Shreveport.
“We want to say thank you to the Pasadena Police Department and to Louisiana police and any officials that participated in bringing this cold-blooded murderer into custody. 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 for those who are in charge to give us justice. May he be burdened with the full weight of the law, for what he has done to my daughter,” the victim’s family said in a statement.
