Police capture man accused of strangling 11-year-old Texas girl, leaving her body under a bed
CBSN
Police arrested an 18-year-old man Saturday in the death of an 11-year-old girl found dead under a bed after she was sexually assaulted and strangled, officials in Texas said.
Maria Gonzalez had lived in the same apartment complex as the alleged killer, Juan Carlos Garcia-Rodriguez, before her death on Aug. 12, Pasadena police said. Officers interviewed and collected DNA evidence from Garcia-Rodriguez the day Gonzalez's body was found, but he wasn't initially on investigators' radar, Pasadena Police Chief Josh Bruegger said. Garcia-Rodriguez was identified as a person of interest on Friday and was located and taken into custody on capital murder charges in Shreveport, Louisiana. He is awaiting extradition to Texas.
Gonzalez's father left for work in the morning on the day his daughter died. He communicated with the 11-year-old girl during the day via cellphone, officials said. Gonzalez messaged her father and told him someone was knocking at the door. He told her not to open it, CBS affiliate KHOU reported. She replied that she wouldn't and that she'd stay in her bed. That was the last her father heard from her.
