Ava Marie Gonzales

• Missing Since 12/25/2017
• Missing From Del Valle, Texas
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race Hispanic
• Date of Birth 10/21/2015 (10)
• Age 2 years old
• Height and Weight Unknown
• Distinguishing Characteristics Hispanic female. Brown hair, brown eyes.

Details of Disappearance

Ava was last seen in Del Valle, Texas on December 25, 2017. She has never been heard from again. Authorities did not realize she was missing until April 2025, when Ava's mother, Virginia Gonzales, was arrested after her seven-year-old daughter's grandmother found the child barricaded in a small bedroom closet in the family's apartment apartment in the 5500 block of Ross Road. She'd been locked there for about a month.

The child was soiled and severely malnourished, and in fact had sustained permanent brain damage from prolonged starvation. Her siblings said that Virginia had told them to lock the girl in the closet because she got into things, ate things she wasn't supposed to eat, and had trouble controlling her bladder. She was only allowed to have one corndog to eat a day, plus half a cup of water. The other six children in the home, who ranged in age from two to fourteen, were healthy and the home's pantry, freezer and refrigerator were stocked with food.

In the aftermath of Virginia's arrest for child abuse, her seven children were taken into protective custody and placed in foster care. Authorities realized Ava, the eighth child, was unaccounted for. There is no record that Ava ever attended school, although the state of Texas requires mandatory enrollment in kindergarten for children over the age of six. None of Ava's siblings were enrolled in school.

Texas's Child Protective Services (CPS) had a document from November 2023 which stated Ava had "moved in with her father." The document was signed with the name of the grandmother of one of Virginia's children and had a phone number on it, supposedly hers. But when police questioned the grandmother, she said the phone number was not hers and neither was the signature.

One of Virginia's former boyfriends, the father of her fourth child, said Virginia had told him Ava was her sister's child and that she was living in San Antonio, Texas. The ex-boyfriend said Virginia called Ava a "crack baby" and claimed she'd been born prematurely with health problems, but medical records show Ava was not premature and had a normal birth with no complications.

Virginia's oldest son said as far as he knew, Ava had been given away to "a family" when she was about three years old. He described an incident he'd witnessed in Austin, Texas in 2018, when he and his family were living in a motel.

He said he heard Ava in the bathroom screaming "really bad" and that when he looked inside the bathroom, he saw his mother violently assaulting Ava in the tub with the water running. Ava stopped screaming at the same time the water turned off. The boy saw his mother put clothes on Ava and put her in her car seat, and said Ava "looked like she was sleeping." When he asked Virginia where she was taking Ava, Virginia told him Ava was going to live with new parents. The boy went to sleep, and when he woke up in the morning Ava was gone and Virginia seemed "happy, like a whole new person."

A photo of Virginia is posted with this case summary. She has not been charged with a crime in Ava's disappearance, but investigators said there is no evidence Ava is still alive and they believe the child was probably murdered on or around January 2, 2018. Her disappearance remains unsolved.