Maleah Davis

Case background and investigation

Maleah Davis, 4, was reported missing in Houston on May 4, 2019, and an Amber Alert was issued the next day, according to FOX 26 Houston. She had been in the care of Derion Vence, who had been engaged to her mother, Brittany Bowens, while Bowens was out of state, KPRC 2 (Click2Houston) reported.

Vence told police that on May 4, near Greens Road and Highway 59, three men in a pickup truck attacked him while Maleah and his young son were in his car, that he lost consciousness, and that when he came to he had his son but not Maleah, FOX 26 reported. According to KPRC 2, surveillance video did not support this account: it showed Vence leaving his apartment with only his son and carrying a full garbage bag in a laundry basket. ABC13 reported that Maleah was last seen on surveillance video on April 30, and that video from May 2 showed Vence leaving the apartment with the boys but without her. ABC13 also reported that Child Protective Services had removed Maleah from the home the year before she disappeared.

Vence was arrested on May 11, 2019, and charged with tampering with evidence, namely a human corpse, NBC News reported. Community activist Quanell X later told reporters that Vence had told him where the body had been left, near Hope, Arkansas, according to NBC News and ABC11. Vence, in a jailhouse interview reported by ABC11, denied killing her.

On May 31, 2019, a black trash bag containing a child's remains was found along a road in Hempstead County, Arkansas, according to NBC News, which cited Hempstead County Sheriff James Singleton. ABC13 reported that the remains were confirmed as Maleah's on June 3, and FOX 26 reported that the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences ruled that she died of homicidal violence.

On May 27, 2021, Vence pleaded guilty to intentional injury to a child and tampering with a corpse, according to FOX 26 and KPRC 2. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison on the injury count and 20 years on the tampering count, to be served at the same time. He was not charged with or convicted of murder.