A Texas woman has been arrested after her 16-year-old foster daughter died earlier this year weighing just 78 pounds and suffering horrific injuries.
Houston Police said that 48-year-old Tracy Gonzales was arrested on Monday and charged with serious injury to a disabled person.
Police responded in March to a call about an unresponsive juvenile and found Nayeli Perez dead, KTRK reported. The investigation ultimately ruled her death a homicide, but Gonzales has not been charged with the girl’s death.
“It is alleged (that when Perez was found), she was only wearing a diaper,” a judge read out during Gonzalez’s initial court appearance. “The records show that Houston Fire Department paramedics found Perez ‘had stab wounds to the genitals, suffering from dehydration and malnutrition.’”
The latest court records say that Perez’s condition deteriorated noticably under Gonzales’s care, yet the caretaker never contacted authorities. Investigators say that was because she feared losing her other children.
Neighbors said they saw Perez frequently until about a year ago and that she told them she’d been diagnosed with learning disabilities and autism.
Gonzales is being held on a $200,000 bond.
