HOUSTON POLICE: Updated images of the Nissan Altima that was reported stolen as part of 4-year-old Maleah Davis' disappearance. EMBED >More News Videos Mom says she's terrified for daughter, who is missing EMBED >More News Videos Brittany Bowens, mother of Maleah Davis, speaks out at press conference. EMBED >More News Videos Stefania Okolie breaks down the timeline of events in the case of missing girl Maleah Davis 1/2: Photos displayed at the media briefing: first is victim's stolen car, a silver 2011 Nissan Altima with TX paper tags 3092G9, seen on a traffic camera near Hwy 59 & State Hwy 6 in Sugar Land about 3 pm Saturday (May 4). Second is photo likeness of suspects' blue truck. pic.twitter.com/rseWWqO4s4 — Houston Police (@houstonpolice) May 5, 2019 HAVE YOU SEEN HER? 4-year-old girl last seen in Sugar Land. EMBED >More News Videos Missing girl's mom says she is terrified for her. Better quality, color photo taken by traffic camera of the stolen Nissan Altima with tags 330-92G9. #hounews pic.twitter.com/UizXnhIC4h — Houston Police (@houstonpolice) May 5, 2019 EMBED >More News Videos Houston Police Department press conference on missing 4-year-old girl EMBED >More News Videos The search continues into night 2 for 4-year-old Maleah Davis. HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- As the search for 4-year-old missing girl Maleah Davis was suspended Wednesday, authorities released updated images of the family vehicle that was claimed to be stolen from her stepfather.Houston police tweeted the images Wednesday afternoon. They said the vehicle has Texas paper tags with "330-92G9" inscribed on them.The photos, which were taken before Maleah's disappearance, were provided to police by the family.Earlier in the day, Texas EquuSearch suspended its search for the little girl. Crews were initially looking for Maleah in northeast Houston, but shifted the search to the southwest side near the family's apartment at Bissonnet and Kirkwood.Texas EquuSearch posted on Facebook that the area it had planned to search was flooded during severe storms Tuesday. "Some of the areas are now filled with deep rain water, and this would greatly limit our searchers and accessibility," the group said.It plans to issue a call-out for volunteers as soon as it's able to do so.The girl's stepdad says he, Maleah and his 1-year-old son were first ambushed by three men Friday night in northeast Houston. However, Sugar Land police stated Darion Vence changed his story multiple times when he appeared Saturday night at Sugar Land Methodist Hospital.Texas EquuSearch volunteers began looking for Maleah on Monday after the Houston Police Department requested the group's immediate help.Their search began on foot and by ATV in a field near Highway 59 and Greens Road.Searchers on foot went through the thicker brush and dealt with snakes and mud. But they're determined to find Maleah alive. "We want to start checking every single dumpster just in case," said Texas EquuSearch's Tim Miller. "We believe in miracles. Let's hope we get one. ""I'm choked up right now thinking about her," Miller told ABC13. "I've been on these cases before. If it doesn't touch your heart, and you don't get emotional, you're just not human. "Time is of the essence in the search. Maleah has had several brain surgeries and requires medications and constant care.Monday night, ABC13 learned the child was recently returned to her home after CPS removed her last August.According to CPS officials, the girl and her two siblings - 5-year-old and 1-year-old boys - were removed as the agency investigated allegations of physical abuse related to her head injury.The three siblings were brought back in February.In an exclusive interview with ABC13 Eyewitness News, Brittany Bowens, Davis' mother, said it was determined a fall was the cause of the girl's injuries.The current search for Maleah stretches back to what allegedly happened Friday night. The girl's stepfather, Darion Vence, said he pulled over, with Maleah and his 1-year-old son, to check his tires because he heard a popping noise near Greens Road and Highway 59.The family was on the way to pick up Bowens from Bush Intercontinental Airport. Bowens said she had just returned to Houston after attending her father's funeral.As Vence was checking his vehicle, he claims three Hispanic men in a 2010 blue Chevrolet crew cab pickup truck pulled up.Police said that's when Vence was hit on the head by one of the men and lost consciousness.The next thing he knew, Vence said he woke up on the side of Highway 6 near First Colony Mall around 6 p.m. Saturday. His son was with him, but Maleah was not.Police said Vence went to Houston Methodist Hospital in Sugar Land around 11 p.m. to seek treatment for his injuries with his son.Maleah's stepfather said she was last seen in the 16500 block of the Southwest Freeway.Meanwhile, Bowens tells ABC13 they called police Saturday morning to file a report because they were concerned after not hearing from Vence.Maleah was wearing a pink bow in her hair, a light blue zip jacket, blue jeans and gray, white and pink sneakers.She is described as an African-American female with black hair and brown eyes. She stands 3 feet tall and weighing 30 to 40 pounds.Bowens told ABC13 on Monday that she's terrified for her daughter. "My spirit is so broken, I feel so lost. I can't concentrate, I can't focus. It's so overwhelming for me. It doesn't seem real," Bowens said tearfully.Family members were out in the Sugar Land area handing out fliers on Monday, with people who didn't even know Maleah joining in to help. "Anything helps. Share a post, share a flier, anything. It is greatly appreciated and I mean that from my heart, I mean that with every bit of me," Bowens said.Bowens has also said she isn't questioning Vence's story. "There's not one thing in my soul that says that he would do that," she told ABC13.Vence's 2011 Nissan Altima also has not been found and is considered stolen. It has Texas tags 330-92G9. Texas EquuSearch says it has received a handful of tips about the vehicle and plans to follow up on those tips Tuesday.Once an Amber Alert is issued, it is typically resolved in 24 hours, but not always, says Beth Alberts, CEO of Texas Center for the Missing and Director of Houston Regional Amber Alert System.Alberts told ABC13 that statistically, the longer a child is missing, the more likely harm has come to them. The statistics are based on the circumstances.At the same time, she points out that there are cases like Elizabeth Smart, Shawn Hornbeck, and Jaycee Dugard, who all eventually returned after an extended period of time. "So you never for a minute assume that something horrible has happened. You always assume that you are going to find a live child," Alberts said. "We have a 95 percent alive success rate, so you never lose hope," Alberts continued.Investigators have spoken with Maleah's biological father, and he is cooperating with police.Anyone with information on Maleah Davis' whereabouts is urged to contact HPD at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.<doc-sep>The mother of a 4-year-old girl reportedly abducted in Houston over the weekend made a tearful plea Monday night for the child's safe return. Maleah Davis' stepfather, Darion Vence, reported her kidnapping, telling police he was driving to George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Friday night to pick up the girl's mother when he pulled over to check on a possible flat tire. Vence claimed he was then attacked by two men, who held him and his two children — Maleah and her 2-year-old brother — before releasing him and the boy Saturday night. Maleah Davis Houston Police Department The distraught mother begged Texans to keep their eyes peeled for her little girl. "I just want to find Maleah and I love her so much. I love her so much," Brittany Bowens said Monday night. "If there's anybody that can help me, please, please, I just want to find my baby. I just want to find her." Her mother, Brenda Bowens, had a direct message for the child. "If she's listening to this, I want you to know that Nana loves you and I promise to take you to Lake Charles and I still want to do that," Brenda Bowens said. "I want to fulfill my promise that I told you the other day. And I miss you and I love you." A volunteer search crew resumed its efforts Tuesday morning, scouring fields near the Houston airport, looking for the missing toddler. The organization, Texas EquuSearch, which uses mounted patrols to search rugged terrains for missing persons, is also on the lookout for Brittany Bowens' silver Nissan, which Vence was driving Friday night and is also missing. Tim Miller, founder and director of Texas EquuSearch, had his volunteers searching for that car in nearby Sugar Land, where security footage spotted it over the weekend. "It'll hopefully stand out if this car is in this area, which I feel as though the car is somewhere in this area, close," Miller said.<doc-sep>Maleah Davis, 4, was last seen on Friday May 3. Authorities have suspended the search for missing 4-year-old Maleah Davis after parts of Texas were inundated with heavy rains and flooding. A group that was helping with the search said it would be suspended until further notice. "Some of the areas are now filled with deep rain water, and this would greatly limit our searchers and accessibility," the group said. Maleah Davis was last seen on May 3. An Amber Alert was issued Sunday morning. The girl's stepfather, Darion Vence, claimed that three mystery men beat him up and briefly held him and Maleah's 2-year-old brother hostage. He later told police that the men dumped him and the boy on the side of the road and fled with Maleah. According to Sgt. Mark Holbrook of the Houston Police Department Homicide Division, Vence said that he went in and out of consciousness during the ordeal and, at one point, woke up to find the suspects driving him and the two children around in what he described as a blue pickup truck. Vence told police that he eventually regained full consciousness around 6 p.m. on Saturday, waking up on the side of a road in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land with his toddler unharmed near his side. Maleah was nowhere to be found, Vence told police. ABC station KTRK reported that Texas EquuSearch became involved in the case Monday after their help was requested by the Houston Police Department.<doc-sep>
Police in Texas say they have located the car used by the former fiance of missing 4-year-old Maleah Davis' mother on the day he claims the little girl was kidnapped by three men who assaulted him and knocked him unconscious. The car, a silver 2011 Nissan Altima, was located Thursday morning in Missouri City, Texas, close to where Derion Vence, 26, said he regained consciousness and discovered the girl had vanished. He told police he regained consciousness on the side of a road, more than 21 hours after he said the perpetrators took Maleah and the car, according to the Houston Police Department. Vence told police his 2-year-old son, who had also been in the car, was sitting next to him and was unharmed. The Nissan was spotted Thursday morning parked in the middle of a shopping mall parking lot in Missouri City, according to police. A taxi driver noticed the car from news reports and called the police, said Det. Ken Fregia, of the Houston Police Department Homicide Division. Fregia said the car was unlocked and that a child's car seat was inside, but investigators found no evidence of foul play in the vehicle or in its trunk. "The car looks fine. Everything looks normal on the car," Fregia told reporters at the scene. Officers are conducting a search of the vehicle and planned to tow the car to a facility where they can do a more detailed search, Fregia said. He said investigators also plan to comb through surveillance camera footage from the mall to see if there is a video of whoever left the car in the parking lot. Maleah's mother, Brittany Bowens, who has been part of a group of volunteers passing out fliers and searching for the missing girl, broke down in tears and collapsed after going to the mall and seeing investigators searching the car, which is registered to her. "Where is Maleah? Where is my baby?" Bowens tearfully yelled before falling to the ground on her knees, ABC station KTRK-TV in Houston reported. Maleah has been missing since Friday night and police have not identified any suspects in her disappearance. A court order issued this week showed that Vence and Bowens has have been banned from having any contact with the toddler they have together and Maleah, according to ABC affiliate station KVUE-TV in Austin. State Child Protective Service opened an investigation of the couple last August after Maleah hurt her head and had to undergo brain surgery, officials said. The children were temporarily placed in the custody of relatives but were returned to Bowens and Vence in February, according to CPS records obtained by KVUE. Vence told police he was driving with the children to pick up Bowens about 9 p.m. Friday at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, where Bowens was returning from a trip to Massachusetts when he noticed something wrong with their car and pulled over in north Houston, police said. "He hears a popping noise like he has a flat tire, pulls over to check on it," Sgt. Mark Holbrook of the Houston Police Department Homicide Division said at a news conference on Sunday. Vence told police that when he got out to check the car, a blue pickup truck pulled up behind him and two men approached him. One of the men, according to what Vence told police, made a comment that "Maleah looks very nice, looks very sweet," according to Holbrook. The other male hit Vence in the head, knocking him out, Holbrook said. Vence told police that he kept going in and out of consciousness, but at one point he was in the back of the suspects' truck with his son and Maleah and that there were now three suspects in the vehicle driving them around, Holbrook said. He said the next time Vence woke up, about 6 p.m. on Saturday, he was on the side of the Southwest Freeway near State Highway 6 in Sugar Land, some 22 miles southwest of Houston. "He wakes up. He has his son ... with him. He begins walking around. He tries to summon help. Nobody's really helping him," Holbrook said, recounting Vence's account. He said Vence told police that he walked with his son to Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital, arriving about 10 or 11 p.m. He was treated for a head injury and police were called. Frejia said police have been unable to locate Vence in the past few days but would like to interview him again.