N.J. 5-Year-Old Girl Found Alone at NYC Bus Station, Leads Cops to Her Dead Mom

HUNTERDON COUNTY, NJ — A 5-year-old girl who moved from Hunterdon County two days ago was found sitting alone inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal at Eighth Avenue and West 41st Street on Monday morning.

She ended up setting in motion a homicide investigation into the death of her mother, who cops found — on a tip from the young girl — inside her Stamford, Ct. apartment later that day.

The little girl's mother is a Guatemalan national around 30 years old, Capt. Richard Conklin, a spokesman for the department said, who apparently moved to Stamford from New Jersey on Sunday.

A spokeswoman for the Flemington-Raritan school district, Laura Bruhn, confirmed Tuesday morning that the girl was enrolled in the school district but is no longer. She declined to provide details on when the girl left the district or why, according to nj.com.

The little girl's father, meanwhile, is suspected of leaving his kid at the bus station and is wanted for questioning in the suspicious string of events.

"At about 10 a.m., an unattended 5 year old female was seen by Port Authority Police in the second floor concourse of the Midtown Bus terminal," a spokesman for the Port Authority Police Department said in a statement sent to Patch.

"She is unharmed," the police spokesman said. "She is in good physical condition. Investigation continues."

The little girl told police she lives in Stamford, the spokesman said.

Given this information, Port Authority cops immediately reached out to the Stamford Police Department. "They called us and asked us to follow up on that," Conklin told Patch.

Local cops were sent to the girl's home in the Courtland Glen Cooperative in the 300 block of Courtland Avenue, where they found her mother dead, Conklin said.

There appeared to have been a struggle inside the apartment, the spokesman said.

An autopsy of her body is scheduled for Tuesday.

The girl's father, Elmer Gomez-Ruono, 32, is now a person of interest in the case and is wanted for questioning by Stamford police, Conklin said. He is described as approximately 5 feet, 8 inches tall and 140 pounds with long, black hair, a medium build and a medium complexion.

Stamford police provided Patch with the following photo of Gomez-Ruono, although it is extremely tiny and hard to make out:

Anyone with information on Gomez-Ruono's whereabouts is asked to contact Stamford detectives at 203-589-3546.

Citing unnamed police sources, ABC7 reported that detectives believe the girl's father may have abandoned her at the Port Authority Bus Terminal after killing her mother in Stamford, a town of around 130,000 known for the extreme wealth disparity between its richest and poorest residents.

"Sources said the girl did not appear harmed or traumatized, but they believe she may have been a witness of the nightmare to the homicide," ABC7 reported.

Additional reporting by Rich Scinto/Patch

Lead photo of the Port Authority Bus Terminal by Seth Werkheiser/Flickr