Julie Ann Gonzalez Update: Husband George De La Cruz Named "Person of Interest" in Disappearance
AUSTIN, Texas (CBS) A little over three months after Julie Ann Gonzalez was reported missing by her aunt, recently released court documents reveal that Austin police have been investigating her estranged husband, George De La Cruz, as a person of interest in the case since early May, and turned up some potentially incriminating evidence while serving a search warrant that same month.
PICTURES: Julie Ann Gonzalez Missing
According to the search warrant, investigators found a debit card belonging to Gonzalez in De La Cruz's house along with the car keys
belonging to Gonzalez. Investigators also found droplets of blood and human tissue as well as hair and fibers, CBS affiliate KEYE reported.
De La Cruz is thought to be the last person to see Gonzalez before she disappeared when she came to his house to pick up their 2-year-old daughter, Layla, at around 11 a.m. March 26. The two were going through a contentious divorce, but shared custody of Layla who had been spending a few days with her father. De La Cruz says Gonzalez looked "out of it" when she arrived and asked him to keep Layla a few more days because she needed to get away and spend some time alone.
That was the last time anyone has reported seeing Gonzalez. Her aunt, Dora Cooper, reported her missing the next day and Gonzalez's car was found abandoned in a pharmacy parking lot not far from De La Cruz's house March 28.
PICTURES: Julie Ann Gonzalez Missing
The documents do not reveal whether the blood or hair belonged to Gonzalez, but surveillance video captured De La Cruz using the debit card to buy a video with his daughter just after he says he last saw Gonzalez.
The documents also state that in May De La Cruz's mother, who lives with him, led cops to a hole that had been dug under a large storage shed in the backyard. De La Cruz told police at the time that the previous owners had dug the hole for "plumbing purposes." But his mother contradicted his story saying she had not noticed the whole until May 4, according to the Austin American Statesman.
Police returned later to execute a search warrant for the storage shed but did not find a body, the paper reported.
Also in May, Gonzalez's family took her story national, appearing on the "Dr.Phil" for a segment entitled "Runaway Moms." De La Cruz appeared as well and took a polygraph test, answering questions like "are you responsible for Julie's disappearance?" He failed the test, KEYE reported.
De La Cruz's attorney, Patrick Fagerberg, refutes the reports and suspicions against his client saying that De La Cruz has a "watertight alibi" "from morning till night" for the day that Gonzalez went missing, according to CNN.
As for the debit card and keys to the abandoned car Fagerberg told the news channel that "there [is] an innocent explanation for everything that happened that day."
Complete Coverage of Julie Ann Gonzalez Disappearance
