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Virginia Gonzales Starves Daughter, Reverses Plead Deal Refusal, Learns Fate · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Now here's a woman nobody
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Speaker 1: will forget. I don't know if you're gonna remember her name,
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Speaker 1: Virginia Gonzalez, but you'll remember this, the mom of multiple children,
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Speaker 1: including a seven year old little girl found locked in
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Speaker 1: a dark closet that was barricaded down to about twenty
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Speaker 1: six pounds, fed one corn dog a day. If that,
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Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to
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Speaker 1: thank you for being with us.
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Speaker 2: On April third, twenty twenty five, Austin Police Department responded
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Speaker 2: to a nine to one to one call for a
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Speaker 2: seven year old child that was found locked in a
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Speaker 2: closet and starving. The seven year old was immediately taken
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Speaker 2: to a local hospital for medical treatment and it is
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Speaker 2: currently recovering. There were six other children found in the
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Speaker 2: I'm not appeared physically healthy.
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Speaker 3: Police officers at an Austin apartment find a severely malnourished
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Speaker 3: seven year old girl who is barricaded in a bedroom closet.
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Speaker 3: The child has found soiled, weighing just twenty nine pounds
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Speaker 3: and has been confined to a three foot by two
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Speaker 3: foot clauset space for approximately a month. Investigators find the
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Speaker 3: child has been given one corn dog and a half
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Speaker 3: a cup of water a day. Doctors Addell Children's Medical
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Speaker 3: Center determined the little girl as suffering moderate to severe
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Speaker 3: cerebral atrophy from prolonged malnutrition, damage from which she will
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Speaker 3: never recover.
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Speaker 1: Virginia Gonzalez, spacing charges including injury to a child inflicting
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Speaker 1: serious injury, learns her fate in court.
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Speaker 4: The mother accused of locking her young daughter in a
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Speaker 4: closet for weeks, initially refused to plead deal, but now
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Speaker 4: one has been reached. Thirty three year old Virginia Gonzalez
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Speaker 4: pleaded guilty to two charges of felony child injury. She
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Speaker 4: receives a twenty five year sentence on each count, which
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Speaker 4: she will say serve at the Texas Department of Criminal
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Speaker 4: Justice Facility in Huntsville. The counts will serve concurrently, Let me.
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Speaker 1: Jog your memory about what happened. This closet was less
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Speaker 1: than five feet by two feet five by two five
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Speaker 1: feet tall, two feet wide. There were other objects in there?
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Speaker 1: What other objects in there? No light, no ventilation, and
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Speaker 1: it was barricaded by seventy five pounds of boxes in
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Speaker 1: front of it. Can you imagine the life. That child
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Speaker 1: had in a closet, her living space about three by
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Speaker 1: one foot ten inches three by two let's be generous,
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Speaker 1: no light, no ventilation, barricaded on the outside by seventy
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Speaker 1: five pound boxes in front of it. The little girl
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Speaker 1: was soiled, of course, she had tee teed and defecated.
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Speaker 1: I said twenty six it's twenty nine pounds. Twenty nine
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Speaker 1: pounds when she was rescued. She's already suffered moderate to
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Speaker 1: severe cerebral atrophy. That's permanent brain damage due to prolonged nutrition. Quote.
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Speaker 1: She will never recover, according to the state's affidavit. Now,
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Speaker 1: the other six children in the home from two to
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Speaker 1: fourteen told Grandma they were ordered to lock her in
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Speaker 1: there because she had quote bladder control issues and was
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Speaker 1: quote always getting into stuff and quote eating things she
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Speaker 1: was not supposed to, what like food. A ten year
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Speaker 1: old brother told police he was told he had to
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Speaker 1: clean the closet because the little sister would have to
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Speaker 1: defecate a urinate in the closet. The little girl gets
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Speaker 1: just a corn dog a day and a half a
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Speaker 1: cup of water. How can it tie? I'll survive day
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Speaker 1: after day, week after week, month after month. Lock in
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Speaker 1: a dark closet, living off nothing. Straight out to Christina Ohio.
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Speaker 1: Joining US investigative reporter Christina, this child locked in a closet.
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Speaker 5: What happened well, according to the affidavit, when police got there,
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Speaker 5: When the caller called in for the welfare check and
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Speaker 5: police got there, they found a seven year old little
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Speaker 5: girl locked in a closet. It was barricaded by seventy
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Speaker 5: five pounds of boxes. They opened that door, they found
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Speaker 5: that child in there. She was soiled, surrounded by feces.
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Speaker 5: She was severely malnourished. She had dark spots all over
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Speaker 5: her body, which is a sign of severe malnourishment. They
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Speaker 5: took her, of course, to the hospital where she weighed
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Speaker 5: twenty nine pounds, and medical personnel say that because of
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Speaker 5: the prolonged starvation of that little girl that she will
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Speaker 5: have permanent brain damage.
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Speaker 1: Permanent brain damage caused by starvation. Join Virginia Bagbee, director
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Speaker 1: of Child Help, National child abuse hotline Child Help Virginia,
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Speaker 1: thank you for being with us. Many people don't know
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Speaker 1: that starving a child can result in permanent brain damage.
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Speaker 1: Have you ever seen anything like it before, Virginia.
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Speaker 6: We have definitely heard about cases like this and they
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Speaker 6: happen all too often.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Kendall Crown's chief medical Examiner, Terrent County. That's fort worth,
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Speaker 1: never a lack of business. He is the esteemed lecturer
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Speaker 1: at the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU. I know
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Speaker 1: that you heard this, but let me repeat it again.
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Speaker 1: A seven year old little girl barricaded in a locked
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Speaker 1: bedroom closet lot from the outside, soiled, a seven year
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Speaker 1: old weighing just twenty nine pounds, confined to a three
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Speaker 1: by two foot closet. She is being given at most
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Speaker 1: one corn dog and a half cup of water a day.
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Speaker 1: She is now suffering permanent, moderate di severe cerebral atrophy
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Speaker 1: from prolonged malnutrition. The doc states she will never recover.
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Speaker 1: Could you interpret that place certainly?
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Speaker 7: So she's not being given much food or water. I
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Speaker 7: mean a corn dog and a cup of water is
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Speaker 7: not much for a child or anybody for that matter.
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Speaker 7: Her body is losing its depleting its muscle, depleting its stores.
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Speaker 7: So her muscles are wasting away, her bones are starting
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Speaker 7: to not form properly, and she's being starved. And part
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Speaker 7: of being star results in your cardiac muscle or your
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Speaker 7: heart muscle mass starting to also fade away or go away,
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Speaker 7: which reduces your heart's ability to pump your blood, which
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Speaker 7: results in your kidney's failing and you go into kidney failure.
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Speaker 7: You also start having gut issues as well, and this
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Speaker 7: can all affect your brain and your brain's development, especially
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Speaker 7: in a child. So all those factors combined will result
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Speaker 7: in her having these issues that the doctors are describing.
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Speaker 1: Now, the general crowns a child of seven years old
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Speaker 1: should weigh around seventy pounds. Forty forty five to seventy pounds,
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Speaker 1: Is that right?
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Speaker 7: Yes, that would be about the average plate of a child.
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Speaker 1: At seven, a seven year old average. Of course, they
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Speaker 1: grow in different ways. The average is fifty one pounds
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Speaker 1: for a seven year old child, but it ranges from
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Speaker 1: forty three to seventy. So where would you place twenty
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Speaker 1: nine pounds in that spectrum? Twenty nine pounds. If a
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Speaker 1: seven year old can weigh up to seventy three, she's
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Speaker 1: not even half the weight of a seven year old.
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Speaker 7: Yeah, what you're describing is a severely malnourished child. So
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Speaker 7: she's been starved for a prolong period of time.
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Speaker 1: How does that make a child brain damaged?
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Speaker 7: It's from the body shutting down, the lack of food,
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Speaker 7: the lack of loss of muscle mass, the heart muscle
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Speaker 7: mass being lost and not circulating properly, the organs aren't
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Speaker 7: getting enough oxygenated blood, and of course the brain's part
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Speaker 7: of this, so the brain's not getting proper oxygenation. Also,
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Speaker 7: the brain relies on glucose or sugars to grow and develop,
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Speaker 7: and it's not getting that as well, So the brain
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Speaker 7: is basically maldeveloped, not getting enough oxygen, so you get
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Speaker 7: brain damage.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Crowns. Isn't it true that a child weighing twenty
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Speaker 1: nine pounds typically, and I'm basing this on charts of
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Speaker 1: statistics that I prepared, is typically a twenty two month
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Speaker 1: old child at twenty nine pounds.
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Speaker 7: Yes, I would be correct.
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Speaker 1: Year old little girl, Doctor Tindall Crowns, that should weigh
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Speaker 1: seventy one pounds fifty one to seventy one pounds weighs
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Speaker 1: twenty nine pounds. With a child starving, what would she
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Speaker 1: be enduring on the floor of that locked closet, Doctor Crowns.
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Speaker 7: She would be enduring confusion, dehydration, or a very dry
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Speaker 7: mouth or throat. It be dry she'd have trouble swallowing,
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Speaker 7: she'd be very tired in just not able to even move.
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Speaker 7: And then you would add on to that the fact
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Speaker 7: that without the food she'd start hallucinating and then eventually
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Speaker 7: just slip into a coma and finally die.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Tindle Crowns. Would the child lose her hair? I
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Speaker 1: know that she's losing all muscle tone? Would she be
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Speaker 1: losing her hair? Would her faculties or hearing her sight?
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Speaker 1: Would that be intact? And what would her brain function
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Speaker 1: be lying on the floor of a dark closet starving So.
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Speaker 7: Yes, hair often will fall out in individuals who are starved.
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Speaker 7: Her brain function would be very minimal. She'd be confused,
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Speaker 7: even possibly hallucinating, and just completely fatigued and not even
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Speaker 7: feeling like moving.
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Speaker 1: Is it true? Doctor Jimnal Crowns that when someone has
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Speaker 1: been starved for a prolonged period of time, as in
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Speaker 1: this case, when you give them food they can't even
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Speaker 1: eat it.
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Speaker 7: Yes, you can have what is called if you give
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Speaker 7: a person who's been starved, you feed them too quickly,
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Speaker 7: you can have what is called refeeding syndrome, where they
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Speaker 7: actually will from the food intake. It will cause so
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Speaker 7: much of a shock to their body that they can die.
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Speaker 1: Guys. When police show up to a home, they find
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Speaker 1: six children and then a seventh locked in a closet,
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Speaker 1: weighing just twenty nine pounds, but ironically, amazingly listen to
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Speaker 1: the condition of the other six children.
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Speaker 3: Six other children in the apartment, ranging in age from
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Speaker 3: two to fourteen years old, are found to be an
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Speaker 3: apparently good physical condition. The apartment's pantry, refrigerator, and freezer
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Speaker 3: are stocked with various food items. The oldest children were
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Speaker 3: given strict orders to put the little girl in the
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Speaker 3: closet because she had bladder control issues and she was
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Speaker 3: trying to eat things.
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Speaker 1: She wasn't supposed to.
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Speaker 3: During the investigation, police learned there's an eighth child, Ava Marie,
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Speaker 3: who is not in the home with the other children.
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Speaker 1: We've got one starved child who has permanent brain damage,
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Speaker 1: a seven year old little girl weighing twenty nine pounds
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Speaker 1: locked in the closet. Now I've got a missing child too.
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Speaker 1: But to doctor angel Arnold, joining me renowned psychiatrist out
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Speaker 1: of the Atlanta jurisdiction at ANGELA Arnold MD dot com,
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Speaker 1: Doctor Angie, thank you for being with us. Did you
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Speaker 1: hear what was just reported that there were six other
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Speaker 1: children in the homely healthy, and they were encouraged to
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Speaker 1: keep the little girl locked in a closet, starving her
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Speaker 1: because the little girl would eat things she wasn't supposed
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Speaker 1: to eat. You know what, doctor Angie, I've heard every
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Speaker 1: excuse in the book about why parents starve the children. Oh,
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Speaker 1: the child ate a candy bar, I'll starve it. The
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Speaker 1: child eats too much, I'll starve it. The child is behaved,
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Speaker 1: I'll starve it. I mean, there are a million excuses
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Speaker 1: I have heard as to why moms and dads starve
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Speaker 1: the baby dead. But yet we see six other children
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Speaker 1: seemingly healthy.
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Speaker 8: And this is oftentimes what we do see in cases
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Speaker 8: like this, Nancy, So the other children need to be
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Speaker 8: taken care of as well as this goes on, because
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Speaker 8: they have been suffering something called Stockholm syndrome. They want
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Speaker 8: to They are so scared of the abuse that they
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Speaker 8: see being heaped on this other child that they that
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Speaker 8: they go into it with their mother literally to protect themselves. Okay,
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Speaker 8: because Nancy, imagine how scared these other children are. They
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Speaker 8: never know who's going to be next to be locked
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Speaker 8: in that closet. So they're going to listen to their mama.
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Speaker 8: They're going to do what she says. And I think
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Speaker 8: that they could probably also psychologically sort of break off
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Speaker 8: from from feeling towards the child that is being locked
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Speaker 8: in the closet so that they can protect themselves, because
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Speaker 8: this is chaos that this family is living in. It
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Speaker 8: is complete and utter chaos, and all of those other
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Speaker 8: children are suffering. They may not be brain dead, brain damage.
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Speaker 8: Excuse me, they are not being you know, they're not
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Speaker 8: being starved, but they are also being damaged by this
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Speaker 8: so called mother of theirs.
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Speaker 1: You said the other siblings are going to have to
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Speaker 1: be in treatment. You're right, because they didn't just watch
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Speaker 1: their sister starve slowly to death. They were forced to
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Speaker 1: keep her in the closet themselves. They're going to go
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Speaker 1: the rest of their lives thinking they starve their sister
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Speaker 1: and now she's got permanent brain damage.
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Speaker 9: Angie, that's exactly correct, Nancy.
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Speaker 8: These children have been abused in a different way, and
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Speaker 8: it's all for a matter of control. It's to keep
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Speaker 8: all of those children in control, Nancy, because you know,
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Speaker 8: you can only imagine there's one mother all of these children,
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Speaker 8: if somebody got old enough to decide, you know, we
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Speaker 8: really shouldn't be treating this person this way, they can
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Speaker 8: possibly escape or something like this, right, but that mother
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Speaker 8: is making sure that they are so terrified. They are
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Speaker 8: so terrified in the home that they live in, and
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Speaker 8: she and she feeds them so that they have this
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Speaker 8: odd relationship ship with the mother where they still need her,
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Speaker 8: but they're scared of her, so that none of them will.
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Speaker 1: Go against Charlotte Too. Brown Blake joining US agent, Professor
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Speaker 1: of University Texas School of Law, Chief Legal Officer Texas
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Speaker 1: Advocacy Project, browin thank you for being with us. I've
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Speaker 1: seen it many many times, for one child out of
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Speaker 1: the whole group is singled out and they're the ones
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Speaker 1: that starved. That child is the one that's abused. I
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Speaker 1: don't understand the phenomena, but I accept it because I've
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Speaker 1: seen it over and over. Even cases that I prosecuted,
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Speaker 1: other children would go unscathed while the one child would
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Speaker 1: end up dead.
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Speaker 10: The idea that abuse is all about power and control
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Speaker 10: really helps explain this dynamic. This person is not out
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Speaker 10: of control. They're being very calculated and systematic in who
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Speaker 10: they abuse and how so all of the children experienced abuse,
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Speaker 10: just in different ways.
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Speaker 1: Joining me is a special guest. This is Leanne Marie,
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Speaker 1: friend of the children's mother, Virginia Gonzalez. Leanne, thank you
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Speaker 1: for being with us. Yes, ma'am, Leanne Marie. Tell me
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Speaker 1: about Virginia Gonzalez.
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Speaker 9: So, from what I know, she was just a normal person.
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Speaker 11: I mean, honestly, she never really had her kids with
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Speaker 11: her like you know, presence. The only one that I've
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Speaker 11: seen with her in the past year was the oldest one,
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Speaker 11: the fourteen year old.
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Speaker 9: Besides that, we never knew that she had, you know,
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Speaker 9: the little girl. We only knew of boys.
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Speaker 11: So she was just a typical person, partying out in
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Speaker 11: the clubs and the bars.
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Speaker 9: I mean, she she was just she.
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Speaker 11: Never lived like she even had nine eight nine kids.
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Speaker 11: Very very Okay.
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Speaker 1: You're scaring me now, William Marine just said something that
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Speaker 1: scared me. Okay, hold on, So I know that there
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Speaker 1: are six children in the home, healthy ish, one starved
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Speaker 1: in a closet, and one missing. That's eight. But you
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Speaker 1: mentioned nine. The possibility of a ninth child, yes, ma'am,
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Speaker 1: is very ninth child.
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Speaker 11: Yes, so it's right now they're saying that this night
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Speaker 11: child he is not He does not have a social
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Speaker 11: social security here in.
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Speaker 9: Texas, so he's not registered here in Texas.
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Speaker 1: Okay, Darryl Parker, I need you and I need you.
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Speaker 1: Now there's another missing child. Did you hear that? Darryl Parker,
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Speaker 1: former lieutenant Fanny County Sheriff's Office, former marine, former Texas
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Speaker 1: police officer helped me. So we're learning right now that
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Speaker 1: there's a ninth child that's in the wind. Nobody knows
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Speaker 1: how old the child is, where it is, it doesn't
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Speaker 1: have a Texas Social Security number.
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Speaker 12: Yeah, Nancy, that's pretty concerning. I know that the mom
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Speaker 12: has already made several statements to police that are inconsistent
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Speaker 12: about the child that is missing already that they already
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Speaker 12: know about. And it'll be interesting to see if some
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Speaker 12: follow up questioning can reveal anything about this ninth child.
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Speaker 12: Possible ninth child.
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Speaker 1: Virginia Bagby joining us from Child Help National abuse hotline
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Speaker 1: going into this right now. I knew that there were
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Speaker 1: eight children, six in the home, one starve near death
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Speaker 1: with brain damage, and one missing since twenty seventeen. Now
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Speaker 1: I'm hearing about child number nine. Is that child dead?
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Speaker 1: I mean, what do you do when you get a
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Speaker 1: call like this the child help.
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Speaker 6: Hotline, Well, this is a really difficult one. I would
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Speaker 6: encourage somebody to reach out to the local hospitals potentially
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Speaker 6: where all the other children have been born, to see
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Speaker 6: if they have any record. This is very concerning to
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Speaker 6: have two children missing. Now these other children have probably
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Speaker 6: are aware that they have siblings that are add that
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Speaker 6: to the terror they've been experiencing.
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Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Grace in the last days. A
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Speaker 1: stunning guilty plea, Virginia Gonzales stands next to lawyer in
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Speaker 1: court and says guilty. The mom of multiple children, including
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Speaker 1: a seven year old little girl found locked in a
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Speaker 1: dark closet that was barricaded down to about twenty six pounds,
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Speaker 1: fed one corn dog a day if that. A ten
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Speaker 1: year old brother told police he was told he had
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Speaker 1: to clean the closet because the little sister would have
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Speaker 1: to defecate and urinate in the closet. Now, in court,
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Speaker 1: Virginia Gonzales states, I instruct to them not to let
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Speaker 1: her out of the bedroom, but not the closet, so
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Speaker 1: she would basically blame the other children. Quote, we'd capture
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Speaker 1: in the restroom doing something bad. What what would she
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Speaker 1: be doing in the bathroom at seven years old? Quote
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Speaker 1: it was easier for my sons to watch her that way.
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Speaker 1: Well what were you doing? Why would you leave a
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Speaker 1: ten year old boy in charge of six other children?
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Speaker 1: Text messages uncover Gonzales texting one of her children, quote,
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Speaker 1: clean the closet, then throw her back in. In the
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Speaker 1: affidavit we obtained, the detective describes a child as the
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Speaker 1: fat in her cheeks was non existence. Her body had
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Speaker 1: used those stores to sustain itself. What more do we know?
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Speaker 3: A shocking discovery inside a home leads police to investigate
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Speaker 3: a long buried secret.
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Speaker 1: Okay, Liam Marie is joining us a friend of the
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Speaker 1: Virginia Gonzales MS. Murray, thank you because what you've just
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Speaker 1: said could save a child's life. Yes, mom, However, do
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Speaker 1: you know Leanne is the ninth child? Older younger girl.
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Speaker 11: Boy, it's a boy and he is around age nine
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Speaker 11: to ten years old? So she has a fourteen, an eleven,
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Speaker 11: A ten, A nine, a seven. I know she has
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Speaker 11: two three year olds the newborn. So there's there's there's
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Speaker 11: nine from what I'm hearing right now.
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Speaker 1: Okay, hold on, let me have this up. There's a
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Speaker 1: fourteen year old, an eleven year old, a ten year old,
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Speaker 1: A nine year old is the boy that you think
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Speaker 1: is missing? A seven year old? Is a little girl
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Speaker 1: starved in the closet? Two three year old? I go one, two, three, four, five, six,
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Speaker 1: seven eight, I'm missing somebody fourteen, eleven, ten nine, miss
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Speaker 1: save three and three and a kneeborn. What now?
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Speaker 11: So Eva's around eight nine years old, and then the
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Speaker 11: little boys right after her eleven months difference.
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Speaker 1: You stated that Virginia Gonzales, the mother the starving little
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Speaker 1: girl and the other missing girl, was quote normal, would
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Speaker 1: go partying at the clubs and the bars. Hey, I
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Speaker 1: don't have a problem with that party down, mommy, but
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Speaker 1: what would she ever mention who was taking care of
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Speaker 1: the children while she's at the bar.
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Speaker 11: So, from what we understand was that the kids, all
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Speaker 11: the kids were left with the grandmother of she has
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Speaker 11: three kids that belonged to one father and they were
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Speaker 11: that was who she was with the past seven years,
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Speaker 11: and so they were supposedly.
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Speaker 9: All living with the grandmother.
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Speaker 1: Okay, doctor Angie Arnold, I need to shrink because why
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Speaker 1: is she had on a boat partying while child is
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Speaker 1: starving in a closet and two children are missing, right, and.
23:03
Speaker 8: Nancy, how can she? How can she just be so
23:06
Speaker 8: unattached from all of these children that she's having. So
23:11
Speaker 8: my question is why is she having all of these children?
23:15
Speaker 8: And I'm sorry, is it to support her lifestyle? And
23:18
Speaker 8: where are the fathers of these children? We always have
23:21
Speaker 8: to ask where is We're always you know, why isn't the.
23:24
Speaker 9: Mother taking care of them?
23:25
Speaker 8: Okay, yeah, she is a horrible person that has done
23:28
Speaker 8: horrible things to at least two of.
23:29
Speaker 12: Her children that we know about.
23:31
Speaker 8: Where are the fathers of these children?
23:33
Speaker 7: And why are.
23:34
Speaker 8: Any of them involved? But Nancy, I don't believe she
23:37
Speaker 8: should be out partying on a boat. I think that
23:39
Speaker 8: when you have children, you should be at home taking
23:41
Speaker 8: care of your children and not relying on someone else
23:43
Speaker 8: to take care of them, because again we don't know
23:47
Speaker 8: how children take that, but oftentimes when mothers are not around,
23:52
Speaker 8: children do since a fear of abandonment when their mother
23:57
Speaker 8: is not taking care of them.
23:58
Speaker 1: But to Ron, when Blake joining us as junct professor
24:01
Speaker 1: University takes a school of law rowin, I'm not the
24:04
Speaker 1: church lady. If mom wants to party go ahead. If
24:08
Speaker 1: mom wants to vape and smoke, have at it. The
24:12
Speaker 1: issue is intent when she is out partying in her
24:18
Speaker 1: club and bar finery, her child is at home starving
24:23
Speaker 1: and two of them are missing. Now that goes to intent.
24:28
Speaker 1: When I'm trying to prove felony child neglect to a jury,
24:34
Speaker 1: that's when that type of video, let's see the video
24:36
Speaker 1: again comes into play. I couldn't care less what mommy
24:40
Speaker 1: weares or what bar she goes to. Don't care, but
24:44
Speaker 1: if your child is at home starving in a closet,
24:48
Speaker 1: suddenly your behavior, your actions during that time are relevant.
24:54
Speaker 10: Absolutely. I can tell you're thinking like a prosecutor. The
24:57
Speaker 10: contrast between the images you're showing of this child and
25:01
Speaker 10: then her mother partying, it tells the whole story there.
25:04
Speaker 10: And unfortunately many of users present one face to some
25:08
Speaker 10: people can be very charming to some people. And then
25:11
Speaker 10: we hear about these horrible things happening at home.
25:14
Speaker 1: Two doctor Kimmel Crown's joining me, Chief Medical Examiner, Terran County.
25:18
Speaker 1: That's fort Worth. Doctor Kimmel crowns, I've got one child
25:23
Speaker 1: starved almost beyond recognition, her bones sticking out, you know,
25:29
Speaker 1: like they're visible through the skin. I've got that child, starved,
25:35
Speaker 1: almost dead, permanent brain injury. I've got a missing little girl,
25:40
Speaker 1: and now I'm learning from leam Marie there's another boy
25:45
Speaker 1: missing that is about one two three fourth in the
25:48
Speaker 1: progression line of children. Leam Marie joining us a friend
25:53
Speaker 1: of mom Virginia Gonzalez. Did you know that Ava was missing?
25:59
Speaker 9: No, had no idea.
26:01
Speaker 11: Back in twenty eighteen, when I originally first met Virginia,
26:07
Speaker 11: we only knew of three little boys. So after talking
26:11
Speaker 11: to mutual friends and all concluding that she had Ava's
26:16
Speaker 11: hair shaved like a boy, she never had Ava in
26:21
Speaker 11: her possents.
26:22
Speaker 9: I mean, she never let us know that it was
26:24
Speaker 9: a girl.
26:24
Speaker 11: She had her presented as a boy to all of us,
26:29
Speaker 11: so we're all in shock.
26:31
Speaker 9: We didn't nobody knew that she had Ava.
26:34
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I don't understand this. So she showed you Ava,
26:39
Speaker 1: But this is the missing child, not the starving child. Right,
26:45
Speaker 1: you saw Ava, and she had her dressed like a
26:48
Speaker 1: boy with her head shaved.
26:49
Speaker 11: She had her hair, she had him had she had
26:53
Speaker 11: a faid, He had a faid. I definitely confirmed this
26:57
Speaker 11: with her landlord and roommates.
27:00
Speaker 9: That she lived with back in twenty eighteen.
27:03
Speaker 11: Everybody concluded that and confirmed that it was a little boy.
27:08
Speaker 9: It was not nobody knew she had a little girl.
27:10
Speaker 1: Lanne knowing the mother, why do you think she shaved
27:15
Speaker 1: the little girl's head and passed her off as a boy.
27:17
Speaker 11: I feel like that she had a anger issue with
27:23
Speaker 11: the little girls because of the way her mother treated
27:26
Speaker 11: her back when she was little. And I think that
27:29
Speaker 11: she was taking it out on these little girls because
27:32
Speaker 11: from all the evidence and information that I've collected, it's
27:36
Speaker 11: all based on the girls.
27:38
Speaker 9: So you know, she sold the baby who was a
27:40
Speaker 9: little girl that was just born in March.
27:43
Speaker 1: She starved a woa whoa. My head is spinning. What
27:48
Speaker 1: did you just say she sold a baby?
27:50
Speaker 11: Yes, and CPS just found that baby when okay.
27:54
Speaker 1: But that's the newborn baby that was just born in March,
27:57
Speaker 1: so that baby's been sold. Yes, but see how much
28:00
Speaker 1: did she get from the baby?
28:01
Speaker 9: From what I heard twenty five k.
28:03
Speaker 1: Christina Ohio tell me about the newborn baby girl that
28:07
Speaker 1: just got sold?
28:08
Speaker 5: Well, apparently from my investigations online and none of this
28:11
Speaker 5: has been confirmed yet, but she did have this newborn
28:14
Speaker 5: baby and according to all person who says that they
28:17
Speaker 5: are a close relative of the family. She did have
28:20
Speaker 5: a newborn baby. It was sold to a couple, So
28:23
Speaker 5: if that is in fact the case, there could be
28:26
Speaker 5: a possibility that Ava Marigan Soliz was also sold, and
28:30
Speaker 5: that's something that will have to be looked into, because
28:32
Speaker 5: it would be my opic of us to think that
28:34
Speaker 5: that possibility isn't out there.
28:36
Speaker 1: You know what, Christina Ohio, I can only hope and
28:39
Speaker 1: pray that she was sold and that she's alive and
28:44
Speaker 1: being treated better than the little seven year old to
28:49
Speaker 1: Leanne Marie, a friend of mom, Virginia Gonzalez. Why did
28:53
Speaker 1: she sell her baby?
28:55
Speaker 9: I'm guessing financial issues.
28:58
Speaker 11: But at the same time, all the money was going
29:01
Speaker 11: downtown Sixth Street and at the strip clubs. I mean,
29:04
Speaker 11: she was just making it rain with money and buying
29:08
Speaker 11: bottles after bottles and buying everybody buying the bar out.
29:11
Speaker 11: I mean, that's where I seen the money going. I
29:13
Speaker 11: don't I didn't see anything.
29:16
Speaker 9: Else that she had that.
29:17
Speaker 11: I mean, she didn't even have a vehicle, you know
29:19
Speaker 11: what I mean. So, I mean I think all the
29:20
Speaker 11: money was just going to party in I don't think
29:23
Speaker 11: it was ever to just take care of her and
29:25
Speaker 11: the rest of the kids.
29:26
Speaker 9: You know what I mean.
29:27
Speaker 1: I noticed in the party video she's got a Gucci
29:30
Speaker 1: bag strapped around her front. Was that a fake? Was
29:34
Speaker 1: that a fruity? A fake Gucci?
29:37
Speaker 11: From my understanding, everything that the police found in her
29:41
Speaker 11: room was everything was name brand. I don't think it
29:45
Speaker 11: was fake, but I do now know that a video
29:50
Speaker 11: was taped back in May a year ago.
29:54
Speaker 9: She would just cover up her stomach.
29:56
Speaker 11: I mean she would, honestly now that I'm thinking, I'm
29:59
Speaker 11: thinking she was trying to high the pregnancy.
30:01
Speaker 9: Why because she was out there.
30:02
Speaker 11: Partying, I mean on the boat party, which was in
30:05
Speaker 11: September of twenty twenty four, my birthday. You can see
30:08
Speaker 11: in the video she was kind of closed. She didn't
30:11
Speaker 11: take the whole shot. And I got other, you know,
30:13
Speaker 11: videos of footage of her putting the shots on the
30:16
Speaker 11: side when people weren't watching. So I think she knew
30:20
Speaker 11: she was pregnant, but she just didn't want the other
30:23
Speaker 11: the world to know that she was pregnant. So she
30:25
Speaker 11: would literally buy bottles, get everybody drunk, and I guess
30:29
Speaker 11: what then nobody notices anything.
30:31
Speaker 1: Lean question, did she discuss openly that she was selling
30:36
Speaker 1: the baby.
30:37
Speaker 9: No, no, ma'am.
30:38
Speaker 11: I found that out through the one of the children's families,
30:42
Speaker 11: the ones that I've been speaking with since the very
30:44
Speaker 11: beginning of the case, when it first started getting investigated.
30:49
Speaker 1: Do you know who she sold the baby too?
30:52
Speaker 9: I do not know them personally. I just know that
30:54
Speaker 9: it was a couple.
30:56
Speaker 1: Well, I am, why did she keep having children if
30:58
Speaker 1: she hated them so much?
31:00
Speaker 11: I don't think that she was having the children to,
31:04
Speaker 11: you know, just be this mother and to take care
31:06
Speaker 11: of them. I think she was living off the benefits
31:08
Speaker 11: the snap and the EBT and the fathers. I think
31:13
Speaker 11: that was how she would hold some of these men,
31:16
Speaker 11: you know, in her life, because a lot of them
31:19
Speaker 11: didn't deal with the children. They only dealt with her,
31:21
Speaker 11: And a lot of them didn't want the children, they
31:23
Speaker 11: just wanted her. So I think that it was like
31:26
Speaker 11: the kids were like a tool for the men she was.
31:30
Speaker 11: You know how they say there's womenizers. I think she
31:33
Speaker 11: was like like that with the men, like where she
31:36
Speaker 11: idolized men before her children.
31:39
Speaker 1: Did anyone ever wonder who would be taking care of
31:42
Speaker 1: the children while she's out partying.
31:44
Speaker 11: So from my friendship experience with her, she would come
31:49
Speaker 11: and go, So one minute she was out here popping
31:52
Speaker 11: bottles for about two or three months, and then she'll
31:55
Speaker 11: go ghost for six months a year, and then she'll
31:58
Speaker 11: pop out out of nowhere again. So it wasn't really
32:01
Speaker 11: she was really just screet with the children. Like I said,
32:04
Speaker 11: I only went to her that apartment where they found
32:07
Speaker 11: the child that was starving and the other six children.
32:10
Speaker 11: I only went to that apartment one time, which was
32:12
Speaker 11: to go pick her up, and she it was clean.
32:17
Speaker 11: It was the fourteen year old was the only one there.
32:19
Speaker 11: I didn't ask because every time I asked about the children,
32:23
Speaker 11: it was that they were with her, the grandmother, because
32:27
Speaker 11: her baby daddy was crazy after her, so she just
32:31
Speaker 11: left the children with him so he would be calm,
32:33
Speaker 11: is what she would tell us.
32:39
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace new details emerging in a
32:47
Speaker 1: case out of Austin, Texas. Authorities first learn a seven
32:54
Speaker 1: year old girl is locked in a closet. Who knows
32:57
Speaker 1: how long she raised twenty six pounds. When they go
33:02
Speaker 1: to inspect that, they find out her sister has been
33:09
Speaker 1: missing four years. But it was only after that arrest
33:15
Speaker 1: police learned she never reported the disappearance of the other child,
33:20
Speaker 1: a nine year old little girl missing since December two
33:25
Speaker 1: thousand and seventeen. Listen.
33:28
Speaker 2: During the investigation, police discovered that there was an eighth
33:32
Speaker 2: child who was not found inside the home. The missing
33:35
Speaker 2: nine year old child was identified as Ava Marie Gonzalez.
33:40
Speaker 2: Missing Persons detectives determined that Ava was last seen in
33:43
Speaker 2: December twenty seventeen, when she was two years old and
33:47
Speaker 2: in the custody of her mother, Virginia Marie Gonzalez.
33:50
Speaker 3: Learning there should be eight children in the apartment, not
33:53
Speaker 3: just the seven they found, police opened an investigation and
33:56
Speaker 3: quickly determined Ava Marie has not been seen by family
33:59
Speaker 3: or frien and since she was two years old in
34:01
Speaker 3: twenty seventeen in custody of her mother, Virginia Gonzalez. Considering
34:05
Speaker 3: the condition of Ava's seven year old sister when she
34:08
Speaker 3: was found, Austin Police detectives are very concerned about Ava's welfare.
34:12
Speaker 1: So they've got six children seemingly healthy, you've got one
34:16
Speaker 1: child starved, locked in a closet, and now you've got
34:20
Speaker 1: a missing child.
34:21
Speaker 4: Austin Police Department still looking for another of Gonzalez's daughters, Ava,
34:26
Speaker 4: who hasn't been seen since December twenty seventeen. She was
34:30
Speaker 4: then around two years old. Gonzalez's son, the first born
34:34
Speaker 4: of her eight children, told investigators that Ava was given
34:38
Speaker 4: away to a family when she was about three. November
34:41
Speaker 4: twenty twenty three, child Protective Services record state Ava Gonzalez
34:46
Speaker 4: moved in with her father. The document allegedly signed by
34:50
Speaker 4: the grandmother of one of the Gonzales children. When questioned
34:54
Speaker 4: about the document, the grandmother said the phone number on
34:56
Speaker 4: the CPS report was not hers, nor was it her signature.
35:01
Speaker 4: The Austin Police Department was able to track down Virginia
35:04
Speaker 4: Gonzalez's previous boyfriend and father of one of her children.
35:09
Speaker 4: He says Gonzalez claimed Ava was her sister's child and
35:13
Speaker 4: she was caring for her. She also said Ava was
35:16
Speaker 4: living in San Antonio with an aunt and uncle. The
35:20
Speaker 4: ex boyfriend said Gonzalez referred to Ava as a crack baby,
35:24
Speaker 4: meaning a premature baby who was sickly, having health problems,
35:28
Speaker 4: and looked malnourished. Hospital records confirmed Ava was born to
35:32
Speaker 4: Virginia at thirty nine and a half weeks, weighing six
35:35
Speaker 4: pounds with no complications. After Gonzalez's arrest, she told police
35:40
Speaker 4: Ava was living in Mexico with her father. When contacted,
35:44
Speaker 4: Ava's father in Mexico declined ever having custody of the girl.
35:49
Speaker 4: He said he hadn't seen Ava since she was about one,
35:53
Speaker 4: and he was told by Gonzalez that Ava was living
35:56
Speaker 4: with another family in San Antonio.
35:59
Speaker 1: Gonzalez as a man named Saul he Menez took little
36:03
Speaker 1: Ava from her and the man was the girl's father,
36:08
Speaker 1: but she now claims he was deported back to Mexico
36:12
Speaker 1: before he ment as sister took little Ava with her
36:17
Speaker 1: to Mexico as well. I only hope and pray that's true.
36:22
Speaker 1: Although Austin police say they are handling Little Ava's disappearance
36:28
Speaker 1: quote as a homicide investigation, adding they quote don't have
36:34
Speaker 1: any evidence she is alive, Gonzales in court reports she
36:41
Speaker 1: did not kill her daughter. What more do we know?
36:45
Speaker 4: Gonzalez's now fourteen year old son was around six when
36:49
Speaker 4: Ava went missing. He told investigators that he remembered something
36:53
Speaker 4: bad happening in an Austin motil bathroom. He says he
36:57
Speaker 4: heard Ava screaming really bad and peeked into the bathroom.
37:01
Speaker 4: He says his mother was violently assaulting Ava in a
37:04
Speaker 4: bathtub full of running water. He says later he heard
37:07
Speaker 4: the water turn off about the same time Ava stopped screaming.
37:12
Speaker 4: He told investigators his mother then dressed to Ava and
37:15
Speaker 4: put her in a car seat. The little girl looked
37:18
Speaker 4: like she was sleeping than Gonzalez told him Ava was
37:22
Speaker 4: going to live with a new family, a new mom
37:24
Speaker 4: and dad. He never saw her again. Detectives believe Ava
37:29
Speaker 4: may have died at her mother's hand on or around
37:32
Speaker 4: January TEWOD twenty eighteen.
37:35
Speaker 1: William Marie is joining us a friend of the mom,
37:37
Speaker 1: Virginia Gozales. So you think that she's having the children
37:41
Speaker 1: in order to get state benefits.
37:43
Speaker 9: I don't think it's just state benefits.
37:45
Speaker 11: I think, like I said, it's more of a tool
37:47
Speaker 11: for the men that she was in love with.
37:48
Speaker 9: I mean, I mean some of them, some of the from.
37:51
Speaker 11: What I'm understanding too, is some of the kids. I mean,
37:53
Speaker 11: she don't even know who the fathers is to some
37:55
Speaker 11: of the kids. I mean, she was known for being
37:57
Speaker 11: in the club, you know, with multiple men. So I mean,
38:01
Speaker 11: I don't think that she used the children just for
38:04
Speaker 11: the benefits. I think it was just more of tools
38:07
Speaker 11: to keep the men in her life to help benefit her.
38:10
Speaker 9: With the money and the pain for this and pain
38:12
Speaker 9: for that. And that's what.
38:14
Speaker 1: I think to Darryl Parker joining me former Lieutenant Fannin
38:17
Speaker 1: County Sheriff's office at Blackfish Intel dot com. Daryl, how
38:23
Speaker 1: do we go about finding the two missing children. You've
38:28
Speaker 1: got the little girl missing, We've got an AH progress
38:31
Speaker 1: photo of her. You've got her missing. You've got a
38:35
Speaker 1: nine year old boy missing. I believe the little newborn
38:39
Speaker 1: girl that was sold has been recovered. But how do
38:42
Speaker 1: you go about finding the two missing children?
38:44
Speaker 12: Well, you know, Nancy, I see a lot of parallels
38:46
Speaker 12: between this case and the Kasey Anthony case. And if
38:50
Speaker 12: you recall, the thing that really bogged down that investigation
38:55
Speaker 12: was Kathy Anthony's multiple stories where she gave the police
38:59
Speaker 12: all these different versions of what happened to her child.
39:03
Speaker 12: And so in this case, I think the mom has
39:05
Speaker 12: given them some inconsistent stories. All they're going to have
39:08
Speaker 12: to track these down. And this is over a period
39:11
Speaker 12: of time too. Seven years is a lot longer period
39:14
Speaker 12: of time than when Kasey Anthony's child was missing, So
39:18
Speaker 12: it's going to be a lot more difficult for law enforcement.
39:20
Speaker 12: To piece that together. But she couldn't have done all
39:23
Speaker 12: this without other adults being aware of what was going on,
39:26
Speaker 12: at least collaterally. So I think there are going to
39:29
Speaker 12: be some other collateral witnesses that can help provide some
39:32
Speaker 12: information to try and find the kids, Rob and Blake.
39:35
Speaker 1: I don't understand how the mother can be getting government
39:39
Speaker 1: benefits but they're not in school because the government does
39:45
Speaker 1: know they exist and they're off school age. How does
39:48
Speaker 1: that work. This is not supposed to happen.
39:51
Speaker 10: When you hear a story like those, multiple systems have failed.
39:55
Speaker 10: This mother was purposely not taking her children to school,
39:58
Speaker 10: I'm sure because the teachers would have seen something. She's
40:02
Speaker 10: not taking them to their doctor's appointments because the doctors
40:05
Speaker 10: would have seen something. Here in Texas, every single adult
40:09
Speaker 10: is a mandatory reporter of child abuse, not just those
40:12
Speaker 10: professionals I mentioned, neighbors, family members. If anyone saw something,
40:17
Speaker 10: it's the law that they had to report it.
40:19
Speaker 1: Christina Wya, what more do you know?
40:22
Speaker 5: Well, they're the woman who is online identifying as a
40:26
Speaker 5: very close family member.
40:27
Speaker 1: She revealed that the newborn baby was sold.
40:31
Speaker 5: She also is revealing some of the details about what
40:34
Speaker 5: Virginia was telling each one of the family members. It
40:36
Speaker 5: kind of lines up with what Virginia Gonzalez's friend was
40:39
Speaker 5: telling us about the story. She was saying she pitted
40:42
Speaker 5: the two families against each other. She allegedly told one
40:45
Speaker 5: family that the kids were in the care of the
40:47
Speaker 5: other family. Her side of the family told her mom
40:49
Speaker 5: the same thing, vice versa. This woman also claims that
40:52
Speaker 5: the father of three of Virginia Gonzalez's children actually took
40:57
Speaker 5: care of six of the children for two years till
41:00
Speaker 5: he went to jail, allegedly back in December, and that's
41:03
Speaker 5: when she's saying that Virginia Gonzalez went and picked up
41:05
Speaker 5: all the kids. She had kept the fourteen with her,
41:08
Speaker 5: fourteen year old with her originally and then went back
41:11
Speaker 5: and picked up all the kids. So that was in December,
41:13
Speaker 5: which means that if she picked up the little seven
41:16
Speaker 5: year old girl who they are calling re Rea in December,
41:19
Speaker 5: then that means that little girl was suffering most likely
41:23
Speaker 5: six months of abuse before that nine to one one
41:25
Speaker 5: call came in and they discovered her in the closet.
41:27
Speaker 5: So apparently this woman is describing Virginia Gonzalez as very manipulative,
41:31
Speaker 5: and it's crazy because they also say that she didn't
41:35
Speaker 5: allow any of the children to go to school, and
41:37
Speaker 5: there are no records of any of the children being
41:39
Speaker 5: in school. And as for abram Marie Gonzalez, there's no
41:42
Speaker 5: medical records, there's no legal records. So this is a
41:45
Speaker 5: really convoluted case. And if it's true what they're saying
41:48
Speaker 5: about the baby being sold to a couple, that the
41:53
Speaker 5: possibility of abram Reriganzalees being sold to a couple.
41:55
Speaker 1: Is there as well. But it might have been sold.
41:57
Speaker 5: The baby might have been sold to a more affair outfit,
42:00
Speaker 5: which means we could be looking at something concerning child trafficking,
42:04
Speaker 5: which we hope that's not the case. But either way,
42:07
Speaker 5: there's a lot of avenues that investigators need to go down,
42:10
Speaker 5: and there are a lot of leads that they need
42:12
Speaker 5: to investigate.
42:13
Speaker 1: Leam Marie, Now that you realize the extent of what
42:17
Speaker 1: Virginia Gonzales was doing to her children, are you surprised?
42:23
Speaker 9: Very?
42:24
Speaker 11: I'm very shocked. I'm very disbelief. I just I can't
42:29
Speaker 11: believe it. I mean, she put up this image. I
42:33
Speaker 11: would have never, in my rights, say to mind thought
42:35
Speaker 11: that she was starving a kid or abusing the children
42:39
Speaker 11: like that, I would have said something.
42:41
Speaker 1: To doctor Angela Arnold. How can you present one facade
42:46
Speaker 1: to the public and live such a dark private life.
42:49
Speaker 8: You know what comes that comes from years and years
42:54
Speaker 8: of abuse, because people who have been abused learn how
42:59
Speaker 8: to compartmentze different things in their life. So this woman,
43:03
Speaker 8: because of the purported abuse that she experienced as a child,
43:09
Speaker 8: has learned how to contain the different parts of her
43:14
Speaker 8: life and separate them. It all stems from her abuse.
43:21
Speaker 1: If you know or think you know anything regarding these
43:24
Speaker 1: missing children, please dial five one two five seven two
43:29
Speaker 1: eight four seven seven repeat five one two, five seven,
43:33
Speaker 1: two eight four seven seven. We wait as justice unfolds.
43:39
Speaker 1: Goodbye friend,