Crystal Canales, 41, is facing one count of serious bodily injury to a disabled person – a second-degree felony – after officers from the Balch Springs Police Department found her child dead and emaciated at their home on the outskirts of Dallas on February 14.
Delilah Villegas’s body was curled up in a “near-fetal” position, next to a single mattress and pallets of bedding when authorities found her, Balch Springs officer Pedro Gonzalez said this weekend.
Gonzalez said it was clear the girl had been dead for at least four hours because the “rigor mortis had set in” but shared that the medical examiner's office estimated she could have been dead anywhere from between 6 to 24 hours.
Detectives had arrived at the home on Horseshoe Trail, Balch Springs, which was inhabited by Villegas's great uncle, grandmother, and mom, after receiving a 911 call from Canales who explained that her daughter was struggling to breathe and needed CPR.
This is when they found Villegas’ body “skin to bone” with large exposed wounds, bedsores, and decaying limbs, with bones on her shoulder, leg, and arm also protruding through the skin.
