HOUSTON — People who never met Maleah Davis are giving up part of their Memorial Day Weekend to help search for her.
One group called police Friday when they found a cell phone on the side of Patterson near North Eldridge Parkway in west Houston.
Police drove to the scene to retrieve the phone, but they don’t believe it’s connected to the case.
Another group of volunteers from “Houston Unsolved Homicides” were searching a nearby wooded area.
They are hoping Derion Vence, the last person to see Maleah, will do the right thing and tell police where she is.
“If he loves her, he would come and say where she at. If you love someone, you don’t hide the truth, you speak the truth,” said John Marsden with Houston Unsolved Homicides. “He is her stepfather and for him being incarcerated and not speaking, that is wrong. I believe someone helped him.”
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo told KHOU he believes Vence knows where Maleah’s body is but he’s not cooperating with detectives.
Maleah was last seen on April 30 following Vence into the family’s Alief-area apartment. Police later found Maleah’s blood in the apartment and a police dog detected the scent of a body in Vence’s car.
So far, Vence is only charged with tampering with a human corpse.
The reward for information that leads to Maleah has been raised to $20,000.
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