One early morning almost a month ago, the Houston Police Department requested our help to search for little four year-old Maleah Davis – that Darion Vence had claimed to have been abducted from his vehicle. Since that early morning call, the Texas EquuSearch team has searched a tremendous number of hours through rivers, fields, wooded areas, abandoned buildings, ditches, ponds and more covering several hundreds of square miles to find Maleah.
Through your great efforts to find Maleah, we often worked from early in the morning, straight through to the next day without stopping. We’ve worked closely with investigators, and conducted searches that the public wasn’t even aware of. And the Houston Police Department Homicide investigators on Maleah’s case worked around the clock developing leads, interviewing witnesses, collecting evidence and a lot more.
The investigators, like the Texas EquuSearch team had one goal in mind … and that was to find little Maleah. But the investigators also wanted to find-out who, and why anyone would want to abduct four year-old Maleah. Darion Vence was soon arrested, and Community Activist Quanell X got involved in the case.
Quanell X began talking with Darion Vence at the Harris County Jail. Then on Friday – May 31st 2019, Darion Vence confessed to Quanell X that he had killed little Maleah, and then drove to Arkansas where he discarded the body in a roadside ditch in Hempstead County, Arkansas. Darion told Quanell X where he had left the body, and Quanell X immediately called Texas EquuSearch Director Tim Miller to give him the information.
Tim Miller didn’t waste any time in calling Sgt. Mark Holbrook, the lead investigator on Maleah’s case. The Houston Police investigators soon notified law enforcement investigators in Arkansas of the information they had received. Tim and Quanell quickly met Sgt. Holbrook and other investigators, and Tim Miller chartered a private aircraft to take him and the homicide investigators to Hempstead County, Arkansas to find little Maleah.
Just before departing on their flight to Arkansas, Houston Police investigators received a call from Hempstead County Sheriff James Singleton, and he told Houston Police investigators that they have found what appeared to be the remains of a young child. Tim and the Houston Police Department investigators continued on with their flight to Arkansas, and ended-up coming back home to Houston with what is believed to be the remains of four year-old Maleah. But the law requires that positive identification of the child must still be irrefutably confirmed by medical authorities and law enforcement investigators.
We want to thank all of our Texas EquuSearch members that were involved in the search for Maleah. You all did a magnificent job, and you can be proud of yourselves. We also want to give a special “thank you” to the Houston Police Department Homicide Division investigators for their fabulous job on the Maleah Davis case. Your diligence, experience, training, hard work, long working hours and dedication to find Maleah Davis shined through on you all.
We also want to thank Quanell X for his help, and obtaining the priceless information – that led to the recovery of what we believe to be the remains of Maleah Davis. We also want to thank the Missouri City Police Department, Republic Helicopters Inc., Sugarland Police Department, Ft. Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls, the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office, The Arkansas State Police, Sheriff James Singleton and the Hempstead County Sheriff’s Office, the Hope Arkansas Police Department, the Arkansas Fish & Game Department, Judicial authorities from both Texas and Arkansas and the U S Postal Inspectors Office.
We thank you all.
Lost is Not Alone.