On Jan. 29, 2013 it was reported that a Las Cruces, NM couple had been arrested for locking up an 8-year-old girl in a cage in their bedroom. And new details reveal who told police.
The KPLR.com report revealed that the developmentally disabled female child had been locked in the cage in the unmarried couple's bedroom while the rest of the family went to a movie.
Another news reports by Las-Cruces Sun-News revealed that the child had not officially been adopted yet by Cindy Patriarchias, 33, and that it was Patriarchias' estranged husband who alerted the Dona Ana County Sheriff's Office that the child was missing from an elementary school movie event.
The husband of the suspect had shown up to attend the Columbia Elementary School movie too, and he noticed when he arrived that the disabled child was not there. The other three children in the family were present, along with his wife and her boyfriend, 37-year-old Edmond Gonzales.
The husband and wife were in the process of adopting the special needs child when the estranged couple parted ways. After Cindy Patriarchias' legal husband notified authorities, they went to the Zia Shadows mobile home located at the 100 block of Mohawk, but it was dark.
After the movie event, when the mother and her boyfriend returned to the home approximately an hour later, police searched the interior of the residence and found the child in a small wooden box structure that contained a crib mattress.
She was safely removed from the premises and turned over to medical personnel, who say she suffered no obvious injuries, despite the fact that the child victim suffers from a rare neurological condition known as microcephaly. The condition manifests itself in producing a smaller head than normal for children of the sufferer's age.
Cindy Patriarchias and her boyfriend Edmond Gonzales were booked into Dona Ana County Detention Center for suspicion of child abuse, and they were given cash-only bonds of $25,000 each, which will aid in keeping them in police custody as detectives continue to investigate the case.
Dona Ana County is one of 33 counties within the state of New Mexico according to the county's business website, and it is the second most-populated county in the state.
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