Posted on 08/01/2003 10:28:30 PM PDT by trussell
Amber Alert Issued Friday August 1
Michelle and Ashley Villatoro
The Harris County Texas Sheriff's Department issued an Amber Alert for Michelle and Ashley Villatoro on Friday August 1.
Michelle Villatoro and her 18-month-old sister Ashley Villatoro we abducted by their father and their mother was shot dead in Houston TX on Friday August 1.
Both girls are Hispanic with brown hair and eyes.
Police are looking for Louis Gonzalez who is believed to be driving a yellow Pontiac two-door license plate T81-WZJ. Police believe he may be fleeing to Mexico. Police say Gonzalez had threatened to kill Villatoro, his ex-wife, if she ever remarried. They fear he may harm the little girls. He should be considered armed and dangerous.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Harris County Sheriff\'s Department at 713-221-6000 or dial 911.
This needs a BUMP!!
Amber Alert issued for 2 missing girls
Mother killed; children may be with dad
By PEGGY O'HARE and ROBERT CROWE
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
Maria Leticia Villatoro was trying to carve out a new life for herself and her two young daughters. She met a man at her church and married him in February. Only recently she discovered she was pregnant again.
Then her past returned.
Sheriff's officials say the father of Villatoro's daughters made good Friday on his repeated threats to kill her if she married. Villatoro's body was found about 7:30 a.m. in the front seat of her car at a construction site near Katy. She had been shot several times in the chest and torso.
Her children were gone, too. Detectives fear the girls' father -- 21-year-old Luis Gonzalez -- snatched them and fled to Mexico.
Left behind were Villatoro's friends and family.
"The children are innocent little angels, and nothing should happen to them," said Maria Guevara, who attended church with Villatoro. "We're worried about what might happen next, and only God can reach this man's heart."
Gonzalez was charged with murder Saturday. Police say the motive was a familiar one -- jealousy. Villatoro's family said Gonzalez had been harassing her.
"He said, `If you don't come back to me, I'll kill you'," said Villatoro's 18-year-old sister, Veronica Villatoro. "He was always behind her, always chasing her, always following her."
Officials issued an Amber alert Friday night for Villatoro's daughters, 3-year-old Michelle Villatoro and Ashley Villatoro, 18 months. Detectives believe Gonzalez took the girls after killing their mother and fled to Mexico, where his own mother lives. The FBI has joined the investigation, and the U.S. Border Patrol has been alerted.
Maria Villatoro, 20, and her children were last seen at 4:25 p.m. Thursday, when they left the Alpha Kids Center day care at 8320 Fairbanks-North Houston Road in northwest Houston. When Villatoro failed to return home Thursday night, her husband called police, neighbors said.
Her body was found Friday morning in the 900 block of South Fry Road by construction workers who thought she was sleeping in the car. There were no signs of the children.
According to a criminal complaint filed against Gonzalez, a witness told sheriff's detectives that Gonzalez said he was going to kill Villatoro on Thursday.
Gonzalez called the witness around 7:30 p.m. Thursday and asked to meet him on Fry Road, the complaint says. The witness said Gonzalez was driving a green Nissan Sentra, matching the description of the car in which Villatoro's body was found. With the witness following, Gonzalez drove the car to the construction site, got out and moved the children into the witness's car.
The witness told authorities he saw Villatoro dead in the Nissan's front passenger seat and that Gonzalez told him he had shot her three times, the complaint says.
The witness told officials he then drove Gonzalez and the children north on Fry Road, gave Gonzalez $300 and left him with the children in the 1979 Pontiac Firebird painted with gray primer.
Villatoro's family said Gonzalez had been physically abusive with Villatoro in the past and was jailed for hitting her in the stomach while she was four months pregnant with Ashley.
Records show that Gonzalez was arrested in June 2001 for assaulting a family member, pleaded guilty and served 120 days in jail.
Villatoro married Jesus Basurto-Vazquez six months ago after meeting him at her Spring Branch church, Centro Cristiano de Vida Eterna. She and the children moved into his home in northeast Houston and church members say Basurto-Vazquez doted on the girls.
Villatoro's family was still awaiting news of the children Saturday evening.
"We don't know what to do," said Veronica Villatoro.
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