Police are searching for the father of a 5-year-old girl who was abandoned inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal Monday morning after her mother was found killed in Connecticut, police say.
Authorities were still searching for 32-year-old Elmer Gomez Ruano Tuesday morning. Stamford police said there is video showing him at Port Authority at 8:30 a.m. Monday, before the girl was found at about 10 a.m.
A Port Authority police officer spotted the girl alone on the second-floor concourse inside the terminal and brought her to the police station, sources told NBC 4 New York.
Officers spoke with the girl, who only speaks Spanish, and were able to determine she was left at the terminal by her father, Stamford police say. The girl is in good physical condition and unharmed, according to Port Authority police. She is in custody of children's services in New York City.
Stamford police said the girl's mother, who was in her early 30s, was found inside a third-floor apartment on Courtland Avenue. There appeared to be some signs of a struggle.
Police said there were a few friends and family visiting the small one-bedroom apartment Sunday night and that there was some sort of domestic dispute after guests left the party, and that's when she was killed.
It's not clear if the girl witnessed the dispute or the killing.
The girl and her mother had just moved into the Stamford apartment from Flemington, New Jersey, over the weekend. Police said the girl's parents had just separated.
Stamford detectives were on their way to New York City to speak with detectives there, Stamford police said.
