A NONVERBAL autistic teen has been found dead in her mother’s home after she was starved to the point of looking like a child, cops said. Delilah Villegas, 19, was covered in sores and lying dead in the fetal position when her body was discovered in her family’s Texas home on Valentine’s Day.
Cops raced to the home in Balch Springs, a Dallas suburb, after Villegas’ mom Crystal Canales, 41, called 911 and said her daughter was struggling to breathe.
When investigators arrived, they noticed a foul smell emanating from the teen’s room and uncovered her “mummified” corpse, Balch Springs Officer Pedro Gonzalez said at a conference Saturday.
“They thought she was probably 13 and didn’t realize she was 19 years old. It was, as described, skin to bone,” the horrified cop said.
“There was large lacerations exposing decaying limbs. She looked like she was in a mummified state on the floor.”
Detectives questioned Canales on how Villegas could get to such a horror state, especially since she lived with her mother, grandmother, and great-uncle.
Canales claimed that her daughter was “violent” with others and said that she didn’t try to get her medical assistance, according to an affidavit seen by CBS affiliate KTVT.
Meanwhile, the grandmother claimed she hadn’t seen the teen in weeks, and the great-uncle told cops he hadn’t laid eyes on her for a year.
Canales was arrested on Friday, but no charges have been filed against other family members.
Investigators found a single mattress on the floor of her bedroom, two pallets of comforters with sheets and pillows, and a lock and deadbolt on the door.
When asked why she was so thin, Canales claimed that her daughter had just had a handful of Goldfish crackers earlier in the day.
Villegas has horror bed sores on her body that left exposed bones on her right thigh, shoulder, hip, hand, buttocks, and ankle.
When asked about the wounds, the heartless mom merely said she was treating them with Neosporin, cops said in the report.
The medical examiner is still investigating exactly how she died.
Records show that Villegas last went to the hospital in 2021, but there haven’t been any medical calls to the house since, Fox affiliate KDFW reported.
Detectives came to the home that same year on a wellness call, but they didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
Villegas’ aunt Yajaira Pardo hadn’t seen her niece in years, and said she had a “gut feeling” that something bad was happening.
She knew the teen was autistic, nonverbal, and wore a diaper, but remembers her as healthy and happy.
Some of Villegas’ favorite activities were playing outside and organizing all of her stuffed animals,” Pardo told KDFW.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said Pardo, who was siblings with Villegas’ late father.
“To know that she’s in the hands of God and with my brother, in his arms, that’s what gives me comfort.”
Pardo only heard about the teen from Villegas’ older sister, who lived in Fort Worth.
Now, she feels guilty for not trying to see her gone-too-soon niece with her own eyes.
“I do say that I have a blame in all this,” she said.
“And why, because I had a gut feeling that something was wrong.”
Canales is in county jail and facing charges of serious bodily injury to a disabled person under her care.
Gonzales said they interviewed friends and neighbors of the mom, who described her as a “great mother” who was always home.
He said they’re investigating everyone who could have been responsible for allowing Villegas’ horrific decline.
“As a father, our job is to protect our children. When a nonverbal daughter lays helplessly, you sort of wonder what was going through her mind, where she couldn’t communicate or even share some of her pain or suffering to others so that she can get additional help,” said Gonzalez.
“If someone would have noticed or would have been concerned about the child, they could have easily called 911.
“We would have responded and personally checked on the victim, and maybe we wouldn’t be here if that would have happened.”
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