Alabama woman who texted 'I feel in trouble' before she disappeared 2 weeks ago has been found dead in shallow grave
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA: Alabama Police have found the body of a woman who has been missing for the past two weeks, and had texted a friend "I feel in trouble" before disappearing, in a shallow grave a few miles outside Birmingham.
Trussville Police confirmed on Friday, January 3, that they had positively identified the remains found at a home on Chapel Drive in Hueytown as belonging to Paighton Houston, 29, according to AL.
Houston was last seen on December 20 at Tin Roof in the 2700 Block of Seventh Avenue South in Birmingham's Lakeview District. Police said she willingly left the bar at around 10:45 pm with two "heavy-set black males."
She had gone to the bar with co-workers, and friends on social media said the 29-year-old did not know the two men. The last text message she sent to a co-worker was a concerning one where she said she didn't know where she was and felt she might be in trouble.
"If I call answer, I don't know these people and I feel in trouble," the text read, according to her mother Charlaine Houston, who had also revealed that her daughter's bank account had been unused since her disappearance and that all calls were heading directly into voicemail.
At around 1:30 pm on Thursday, January 2, police started closing down on a house and surrounding property on Chapel Drive at Love Street in Hueytown after receiving a tip about their investigation into Houston's disappearance.
They obtained a search warrant for the residence the next morning and found the 29-year-old's body in a shallow grave in the "muddy, nasty" backyard. She was wrapped in some sort of fabric, but her body was still intact.
The house was not occupied at the time, and neighbors said an elderly man once lived there but had moved out a while back so he could go live with his family.
The Jefferson County Coroner's Office has not yet released the cause and manner of death, and Jefferson County sheriff’s Chief Deputy David Agee said their investigation had not yet been deemed a homicide.
"Right now we have a lot more questions than answers but we hope to have those answers real soon. We’re gonna work hard and we’re going to find out what happened," Agee said.