Maleah Davis' remains found in garbage bag after body is identified as missing 4-year-old Texas girl
The child remains found in Arkansas on Friday has positively been identified as 4-year-old Maleah Davis, the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences said. The institute, however, has not yet revealed the cause and manner of Maleah's death.
Reports state that the remains were discovered on an Arkansas roadside in a black garbage bag on Friday. State, local and federal authorities were reportedly processing the scene throughout the day.
After authorities collected the evidence from the scene, the remains — confirmed to belong to a human child — were gathered and transported to Houston for further testing.
Officials found the remains of the child just hours after Maleah Davis' mother's ex-fiance Derion Vence confessed to Quanell X that the little girl was dead. Quanell X is the leader of the New Black Panther Nation in Houston, Texas. Vence confessed to the death, saying it was an accident and that he had dumped the four-year-old's body in Arkansas, Fox News reported.
Vence's confession of the killing came nearly a month after Maleah was first reported missing from Houston. Vence, on the night of May 4, showed up to Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital, seeking treatment for a head injury. He claimed that he had been attacked the night before on his way to pick up Brittany Bowens, Maleah's mother from the airport.
He reportedly told officers that Maleah and his infant son was in the car with him when he pulled his vehicle over to check the tires. Vence claimed that three Hispanic men pulled up in a blue Chevy pickup truck and beat him up knocking him unconscious. He added that when he gained consciousness the next day, Maleah and his car were nowhere to be found. However, his son was still with him.
Shortly after his report, an Amber Alert was issued on May 5 for Maleah and a search was launched to find the 4-year-old. Volunteers and Texas EquuSearch began looking for the child the next day, beginning their search from the area where the abduction had allegedly occurred in northeast Houston.
However, police gradually became suspicious of Vence when he provided conflicting information. The search was consequently shifted to southwest Houston apartment where Maleah lived. He eventually became a person of interest.
Two days later, Vence's silver Nissan Altima was found in the parking lot of a Missouri City shopping center.
Officials said that all of the car's tires appeared to be fine.
According to prosecutors, dogs picked up the scent of a human cadaver in the car's truck and a laundry basket and a gas can were recovered from there.
Vence was subsequently arrested on May 11 and was charged with tampering with evidence, in this case, a human corpse.
After days of unsuccessful results, Maleah's search was called off until concrete evidence of the region could be provided.
However, just before noon on Friday, Quanell X held a press conference, announcing that he had spoken to Vence in jail, who told him that Maleah's death was an accident, and admitted to dumping her body in a ditch in Arkansas.
“One thing [Vence] wanted to make clear to me was that what happened to Maleah was an accident,” Quanell said at the conference. "He confessed to me where he dumped her body."
A search was relaunched and the child's body was discovered within a few hours in a garbage bag.