Suspect named as Juan Carlos Garcia Rodriguez

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Texas cops have named a person of interest in the brutal rape and murder of 11-year-old Maria Gonzalez, who was found by her heartbroken father after he returned home from work.

Guatemalan migrant Juan Carlos Garcia Rodriguez, 18, is wanted for questioning related to the shocking crime, Pasadena officials said.

Rodriguez lived in the same apartment complex as Gonzalez but has since disappeared, police said.

He entered the United States through El Paso in January, self-surrendering to border officers before being handed papers and let loose into the country, Department of Homeland Security sources told NewsNation.

The girl was sexually assaulted before being strangled to death, according to the local medical examiner.

Her father, Carmelo Gonzalez, called 911 on Saturday after he returned home to find his child stuffed into a laundry basket and placed underneath a bed.

He told a dispatcher she was not breathing and arriving medics pronounced her dead at the home.

Detectives found a key at the scene which didn’t match any of the doors in the residence, but did open another apartment in the complex, officials said.

Police tied Garcia Gonzalez to the residence and interviewed him — but he has not been seen since Monday afternoon.

Pasadena Police Chief Josh Bruegger would not confirm reports he had successfully fled the country.

Cops released an image of the suspect and are $5,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest.

The beloved victim’s shattered father told outlets he had been texting with his daughter throughout the day Saturday because she was home alone while he was at his job.

At one point, she told her worried father someone was knocking at the front door.

“I told her, ‘Don’t open the door because I am arriving at work,'” he replied, according to FOX 26.

“I am in my bed,’” was her last correspondence.

“They left her under the bed in a plastic bag,” Gonzalez said. “They left my poor daughter.”

The victim’s gutted mother, Ana Elizabeth Xitumul Saput, has demanded justice in the case.

“I don’t want to cry anymore, because I have a bad heart,” she told Telemundo 47 from Guatemala, where she resides with Maria’s younger sister and other relatives.

“I want justice. I need her killer to turn himself in and I’m asking God that kind-hearted people help us bring our daughter’s remains back to Guatemala,” she said, adding she just wants to see her daughter one final time.

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