Three people have been arrested for their alleged roles in the 2019 killing of a Powder Springs woman and a subsequent cover-up that included telling her son that she’d abandoned him to be with a man, Cobb County police said Monday.
Matilde Gonzalez, whose body has not been found, was reported missing in Paulding County on Oct. 12, 2019. The 42-year-old was last seen the day before in Cobb. Foul play was suspected from the beginning, police said, but the case went cold until Friday when a “significant breakthrough occurred.”
Officials haven’t said what the breakthrough was, but it was enough for them to execute a search warrant at a home in the Indian Trail neighborhood of Paulding near Brownsville Road and Ga. 92. As a result, Abel and Alejandra Castro, 41 and 45 respectively, along with Samantha Vasquez, 20, were arrested.
Alejandra Castro and Vasquez face a charge of malice murder, while Abel and Alejandra Castro face charges of concealing a death and two counts of first-degree cruelty to children, according to online jail records.
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Credit: Channel 2 Action News
Investigators believe there is enough evidence to say Gonzalez was killed sometime on Oct. 11 “by means unknown during an altercation” at a Sharon Drive home just outside Powder Springs, according to arrest warrants. Specifically, Alejandra Castro is accused of “murdering (Gonzalez) and then telling (her child) that his mother had abandoned said child to be with another man,” the warrant states.
It is not clear what Vasquez’s alleged role was, but she’s accused of causing Gonzalez’s death, court records show. Abel and Alejandra Castro are then believed to have disposed of Gonzalez’s body by relocating and hiding it, according to the warrant.
The duo then allegedly escalated their deception by using a Mexican phone number to contact Gonzalez’s child and have someone pose as his mother, making him believe she was still alive, according to the warrant. That resulted in the child repeatedly trying to reach out to that number, investigators said. The child’s age was not disclosed.
The investigation remains open, and anyone with information is asked to contact Cobb police at 770-499-4111.
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