NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. (KLAS) — Three adults are accused of locking a teenager in a bedroom for more than a year with little food and just a bucket to relieve herself, police said.
Addy Gonzales, who police identified as the teenager’s mother; Maria Pasarin, who police identified as the teenager’s grandmother; and Daniel Omezcua, each face charges of child abuse and false imprisonment.
The Department of Child Protective Services received eight previous reports for the family — but all were found “unsubstantiated,” police said.
“There were allegations of abuse and neglect, but upon CPS investigation there was not enough cooperation or evidence to pursue,” the report said.
Police said they were called to a home near Alexander Road and Fifth Street on Nov. 4 for a report of a teenager who was “trying to use a ladder to climb” back into her home. The girl had gone into the neighbor’s backyard and was asking for food and water, police said. The girl then attempted to climb back into her room.
The girl told the neighbor she was able to escape from her room by tying clothes together and climbing out of the second-floor window, police said.
Police arrived, finding the teenager at the window of the second-floor bedroom, officers said.
The teenager said “she was locked in the room where she was currently in,” saying the room “did not have a knob, but only had a deadbolt lock which required a key for both sides to unlock, which she did not have,” officers said.
The girl told police she had escaped to get some water from her neighbor’s spigot. She said she only receives food when her mother, identified as Gonzales, returns home from work.
Gonzales would not let officers into the house initially, saying she would check on her daughter upstairs, police said.
Inside the room, police said they saw “only a box spring and bed frame.” A black bucket in the room was also “half full of what appeared to be urine and fecal matter,” police said.
Officers booked Gonzales, Omezcua and Pasarin into the North Las Vegas Community Correctional Center. Each was released on their own personal recognizance as prosecutors had not filed a criminal complaint as of Tuesday, records showed.
Gonzales, Omezcua and Pasarin were expected in court again Monday.
Police said a 13-year-old sibling also lived in the home but was unharmed.
