The cause of death for Maleah Davis, the 4-year-old who went missing in Texas in early May and whose body was believed to be found on the side of the road in Arkansas days ago, will likely be “impossible” to determine, a search-and-rescue expert said.
Tim Miller, founder of Texas EquuSearch, said that the remains found on May 31 were from the missing girl.
“It was a gruesome sight. It was a terrible sight to see. It took hours gathering up body parts and evidence,” Miller told KHOU. “I think it’s going to match some clothing and other things there that was found. I think I’m 99.9 percent.”
The remains were inside a plastic bag that had been run over by lawnmowers, Miller said. That will likely make pinpointing the cause of death difficult.
“They’re doing an autopsy to determine the cause of death. I think it’s going to be impossible,” said Miller.
Miller’s comments came after a plane carrying the remains landed in Texas.
Officials were working to confirm the remains belong to Maleah; Houston police officials said the remains are from a child but aren’t sure they’re from the missing girl.
Community activist Quanell X, who was representing Maleah’s mother Brittany Bowens until recently, said that the girl’s “stepfather” Derion Vence, Bowens’ ex-fiance, confessed to taking the body to Arkansas.
“He told me it was an accident, and that she is dead and where he dumped her body,” Quanell X said, according to KTRK. “He said he pulled over in Arkansas, got out of the car, walked off the side of the road, and dumped her body off the side of the road.”
Quanell X was representing Maleah’s mother, Brittany Bowens, until this week, when he said he dropped her because her story about what happened to Maleah contained inconsistencies. “She knows what happened,” he told KHOU.
Vence was arrested on May 11 after police found blood in his apartment and discrepancies in his story. Vence was also seen carrying a laundry basket from the apartment with a black trash bag inside, police said. That basket was later found in the trunk of a Nissan he’d been driving, along with a gas can.
Vence said he was driving in Houston to pick up Bowens on May when he was forced to pull over after he heard a noise that sounded like he got a flat tire. When he got out of his car, some men approached him and knocked him out. When he came to, he was in Sugar Land and Maleah was gone.
Vence told police that the men stole his vehicle; the car was found on May 9 in a parking lot in suburban Houston. The next day, surveillance pictures showing Vence carrying the black bag prior to Maleah’s disappearance were released.
Police said in a statement announcing the arrest, “Although Vence reported his silver Nissan Altima was taken in the abduction, surveillance video showed someone in that Nissan Altima dropped Vence off at the Methodist Sugar Land Hospital on May 5.”
“Also, blood evidence obtained from Vence’s apartment has been linked to Maleah. Vence was also observed carrying a full laundry basket from the apartment,” the department added.
Police officials previously said that there were “holes” in Vence’s story and said he changed his story multiple times.
