A California mom accused of strangling her four-year-old daughter might have driven around with the girl’s body in her car for days, investigators reportedly believe.
Police found Mia Gonzalez strangled and unresponsive in a car with her mother on Thursday on Civic Center Way in East Los Angeles, and charged 38-year-old Maria Avalos with the heinous crime, according to KABC-TV.
The slain girl’s father told the station that Avalos was experiencing problems and had driven off with Mia earlier last week.
Cops told the family that the suspect may have been driving around with the child’s body for days before she was arrested for murder, according to the local affiliate.
“Mia was a really good kid,” her godmother Noemi Lopez told the station.
“She was the light of my home. She didn’t deserve this.”
“We were trying to contact her,” Lopez reportedly said of Avalos.
“She wasn’t responding for two days. She said she needed space, that she was going through a lot.”
“She should’ve asked for help,” the grieving godmother added. “She should’ve called me. Now she’s trying to call me from jail. What does she want now? She already did her part, now let me do my part.”
Mia’s cause of death was “combined effects of strangulation and sharp force,” authorities said.
The case was set to be presented to Los Angeles County prosecutors on Tuesday.