Medical Examiner Confirms Maleah Davis Died of Homicidal Violence
4-year-old Maleah Davis died as the result of homicidal violence, a medical examiner reported Friday.
KHOU-TV reports that the girl's stepfather, Derion Vence, remains in jail. As of early Friday afternoon, Harris County Jail records did not indicate that Vence's charges had been upgraded from tampering with a human corpse.
Maleah was reported missing on May 4th. Vence told police he, Maleah, and another child were en route to pick the girl's mother up at an airport when he stopped his vehicle for a flat tire, at which point he claimed two men attacked him, knocked him unconscious, then took Maleah and his vehicle.
On May 9, the vehicle was found in the parking lot of a strip mall in Missouri City, Texas. Vence was arrested on May 11 and charged with evidence tampering.
Maleah's body was found in a garbage bag on the side of a highway in Fulton, Arkansas on May 31st by officers acting on information reportedly provided by Vence.
Surveillance footage from May 3 reportedly shows Derion Vence walking alone to his car outside the family's apartment complex in Houston carrying a laundry basket with a large black trash bag inside. Later that day, additional footage showed him leaving the family's apartment with another child and carrying a bottle of bleach.