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Family transforms Sugar Land home into command center for missing woman

"She's my sister and she's out there," said Brandy Burfield. "We also have an entire team of people working around the clock. And, police have other cases."

SUGAR LAND, Texas - Volunteers with Texas Equusearch continue to comb through property along Tuam Street in Houston's Third Ward. They're looking for any evidence linked to the disappearance of 37-year old Brittany Burfield.

While search teams slowly walk through land and search in brush, more than 20 miles away, in Sugar Land, the family of Burfield is digging through details of their own. Brittany's older sister, Brandy, transformed her mother's dining room into a command center.

They've dubbed the space "Team Binky" because when Brittany was little, she couldn't say her name, instead she said: Binky.

On each wall inside the home, there are organized rows and columns of post-it's and notes. On the floor, boxes of paperwork, separated neatly into folders and envelopes.

"We just started to pull all the paperwork from her house and started to go through it," said Brandy Burfield.

Brittany Burfield was last seen and heard from on June 25th. In the days that followed, Brittany's mother and sister tried reaching out to the 37-year-old; texting and calling her cellphone. There was no answer. But every now and again, they'd receive text messages back.

The language used in the messages didn't match the "text talk" Brittany would use. A red flag.

When Brittany failed to call her mother, (the two would speak multiple times a day) Trisha Valentine reported her daughter missing to the Houston Police Department.

Valentine says authorities discovered Brittany's Braeswood apartment was ransacked. Yesterday, on July 12th, 17 days after anyone had seen Brittany, HPD homicide detectives found some of Brittany's clothing on a property along Drew Street in the Third Ward.

Brittany's cellphone and car, a gray 2015 Nissan Altima, was also recovered by police, days prior to the discovery of her clothing.

A number of the leads police are chasing were initially discovered by Brittany's family.

"Some of the ones that we find turn out to be very important," said Brandy as she looked up at a wall of handwritten details about her younger sister.

Brandy explains why she, her mother and their friends are working tirelessly to track down information, "We also have an entire team of people working around the clock. And, police have other cases."

Houston Police also need a court order to search things like hard drives, cellphone records and social media accounts. Brittany's family has immediate access to the information.

"She’s my sister and she’s out there." said Brandy.

Police have also released the identity of a "person of interest" in the case. Alex Haggerty, 37, is being questioned by police in Brittany's disappearance.

According to court documents he was previously arrested and charged for the assault of another woman. The court documents say Haggerty choked his then girlfriend on May 9.

Credit: Provided
Alex Haggerty

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