Maleah Davis Update: Amber Alert For 5-Year-Old In Houston, Texas

The Houston Police issued an amber alert Sunday for 5-year-old Maleah Davis who went missing Friday. The victim’s stepfather, Darion Vence, told authorities that Davis was kidnapped along with him and his 2-year-old son, and that for some unknown reason, the abductors chose to let him and his son go.

“An #AmberAlert has been issued for Maleah. Her stepfather stated he, Davis and her 2-year-old brother were abducted by three males sometime Friday night [May 3] in north Houston. The stepfather and brother were dropped off in the Sugar Land area on Saturday night,” the police tweeted Sunday.

Vence told the authorities that he was driving with Davis and his son to the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston to pick up the victim’s mother, who was flying in from Massachusetts, when he heard a popping noise coming from the car and pulled over to the side of highway to check it out. That was when “three unknown Hispanic males” drove up to his car in a “blue Chevrolet crew cab pickup truck” and got out of their vehicle.

“One of them makes a comment, saying that Maleah looks very nice, looks very sweet," Sgt. Mark Holbrook of the Houston police homicide unit, said at a press conference. "The other male hits Darion in the head. Darion loses consciousness.”

When Vence woke up for the first time, he found himself at the back of the kidnappers’ pickup truck. He lost consciousness again after sometime. When he woke up again, it was 6 p.m. CDT (7 p.m. EDT) Saturday — nearly 24 hours since they had been abducted. He found himself on Highway 6 in Sugar Land, Texas, with his son, with no trace of his stepdaughter anywhere.

He added that he tried to get help from passersby but no one would come to his aid, so he went to the Methodist Hospital with his son before calling the police. While Vence was treated for minor injuries, the toddler was found to be unharmed.

According to the police, Davis was last seen at 9 p.m. CDT Friday, wearing a light blue zip-up jacket, blue jeans and gray, white and pink sneakers. She had a pink bow in her hair. She is described as 3-feet tall and weighing 30 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes.

Apart from the girl, the vehicle that Vence was driving — a silver Nissan Altima with Texas paper tag 330-92G9 — is also missing. The car belonged to the missing girl’s mother. It was last spotted at an intersection in Sugar Land around 3 p.m. local time, Saturday. The police released a photo of the car.

Davis underwent brain surgery last month, which means she requires a lot of medical care on a daily basis. Holbrook said such illnesses put people "at risk for a whole lot of things. I’m not a doctor, but it’s not good.”

Vence told the police he could not recollect most of the events that transpired between him being hit on the head and him waking up on the side of the highway. Investigators do not consider him a suspect or person of interest in Davis' disappearance. "I realize there's a lot of blanks in that story, but we're hoping that the public fill in the blanks," Holbrook said.

The missing girl’s grandmother, who was forced to pick up her stranded daughter at the airport when Vence failed to show up, said she has had sleepless nights ever since her granddaughter went missing. "I can't even imagine anybody going through what my family is going through," the grandmother told the Houston Chronicle. "It's unbelievable. If anybody hurt my grandchild or they took my grandchild, I want them to be punished the way they are supposed to be because she was the sweetest little girl. I miss her terribly.”

Anyone with information on Davis’ whereabouts was urged to contact Houston Police Department Homicide at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers Houston at 713-222-TIPS.