Virginia Gonzales Starves Daughter, Reverses Plead Deal Refusal, Learns Fate
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
4.2 • 8.1K Ratings
🗓️ 28 February 2026
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Austin police respond to a home in Del Valle after receiving a 911 call about a 7-year-old girl who discovered starved and locked inside a bedroom closet.
Six other children are also found in the home, but police say it appears they are physically healthy. According to reports, the child was soiled and barricaded in a closet with heavy boxes blocking the door.
An arrest affidavit reveals Virginia Marie Gonzales is accused of locking the 7-year-old girl in a closet for “weeks at a time.” The affidavit further states the girl’s grandmother told police that the child had trouble controlling her bladder and often ate things she shouldn’t.
This allegedly led to her siblings being instructed to keep her locked in the closet.
The 7-year-old was hospitalized and is now recovering. During the investigation, detectives learn about another child, Ava, who has been missing for years. Virginia Marie Gonzales, Ava‘s mother, was arrested on a charge of serious injury to a child in connection with the 7-year-old’s case.
According to police, the missing now 9-year-old child was last seen when she was just 2 years old and in the custody of her mother, Virginia Marie Gonzales.
Now, Gonzales has reversed her initial rejection of a plea offer. The State first offered Gonzales a 40-year prison sentence in exchange for her guilty plea. Gonzales now pleads guilty getting 25 years in jail.
Joining Nancy Grace today:
- LeAnne Marie - Friend of Mom, Virginia Gonzales
- Bronwyn Blake - Adjunct Professor, University of Texas School of Law; Chief Legal Officer, Texas Advocacy Project; Founder: Teen Justice Initiative (advocating for teen victims of dating violence); Facebook and Instagram: @TexasAdvocacyProject
- Dr. Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist in Atlanta: Expert in the Treatment of Pregnant/Postpartum Women, Former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emory University, Former Medical Director of The Psychiatric Ob-Gyn Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital
- Daryl Parker - Private Investigator at Blackfish; Former Lieutenant in the Fannin County Sheriff's Office, Private Investigator at Blackfish Intelligence Former Marine, Former Texas Police Officer worked with the Innocence Project of Texas for the last ten years); Instagram: @blackfishintel, FB – blackfishintelligence
- Virginia Bagby - Director of the ChildHelp National Child Abuse Hotline; Facebook and Instagram: @ChildHelp
- Dr. Kendall Crowns - Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth), Host of Podcast, "Mayhem in the Morgue," and Lecturer: Burnett School of Medicine at TCU (Texas Christian University)
- Christina Aguayo - National News Anchor, Salem News Channel; Facebook: @ChristinaAguayoNews, Instagram: @Christina.AguayoNew
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.3 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:04.8 | Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. |
| 0:10.9 | Now here's a woman. |
| 0:12.9 | Nobody will forget. |
| 0:15.3 | I don't know if you're going to remember her name. |
| 0:19.0 | Virginia Gonzalez. But you'll remember this. The mom of multiple children, |
| 0:25.2 | including a seven-year-old little girl, found locked in a dark closet that was barricaded |
| 0:33.5 | down to about 26 pounds, fed one corn dog a day, if that. |
| 0:41.3 | I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us. |
| 0:45.3 | On April 3rd, 2025, Austin Police Department responded to a 911 call for a 7-year-old child that was found locked in a closet and starving. |
| 0:55.2 | The seven-year-old was immediately taken to a local hospital for medical treatment |
| 0:58.7 | and is currently recovering. |
| 1:02.3 | There were six other children found in the home that appeared physically healthy. |
| 1:06.4 | Police officers at an Austin apartment find a severely malnourished seven-year-old girl |
| 1:10.8 | who is barricaded in a bedroom closet. |
| 1:13.2 | The child has found soiled, weighing just 29 pounds, and has been confined to a three-foot-by-two-foot closet space for approximately a month. |
| 1:20.8 | Investigators find the child has been given one corn dog and a half a cup of water a day. |
| 1:25.8 | Doctors at Dell Children's Medical Center |
| 1:27.5 | determine the little girl is suffering moderate to severe cerebral atrophy from prolonged |
| 1:32.1 | malnutrition, damage from which she will never recover. Virginia Gonzalez facing charges, |
| 1:38.2 | including injury to a child, inflicting serious injury, learns her fate in court. |
... |
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