The mom of missing 5-year-old Maleah Davis, of Houston, denied accusations that the little girl had been physically abused, despite Children’s Protective Services removing the girl and her two brothers from the family home last year.
KTLA 5 reports that Maleah’s mother, Brittany Bowens, took the little girl to the West Houston Medical Center last July, after the child was feeling unusually tired. At the time, according to Bowens, the medical staff failed to examine Maleah’s head. Bowens said a few weeks later, Maleah was sitting at a table when she fell over, hitting her head.
“When she falls, she came around that couch, she had a deep gash in her head and it freaked me out,” Bowens explained.
Bowens said she again took Maleah to to West Houston, but claimed the physician discharged Maleah without performing a CT scan on her head. Bowens said five days later, the little girl had a seizure. Bowens said she took Maleah to the hospital again, but this time the medical staff discovered brain bleeding.
“They did a CT scan and that’s when they told me there was bleeding on the left-hand side of her brain. At that point it was a life or death situation.”
Maleah underwent an operation and a few days later, CPS arrived to investigate. Bowens said CPS didn’t find anything because “we’re not those kinds of people,” but within the same month, the agency returned and removed the children from the home for six months. The children were returned to their mother in February.
Vence told police he had two children in the car, his toddler son and stepdaughter Maleah, and was on his way to the George Bush Intercontinental Airport to pick up the children’s mother, Brittany Bowens, who was returning to Texas from Massachusetts.
Vence said he pulled over to check the tires on his vehicle and within a few minutes, three unknown Hispanic males pulled up in a blue 2010 Chevrolet crew cab pickup. Vence said two men got out of the truck, and while one made comments about Maleah, the other reportedly struck him in the head.
“On of them makes a comment and says, ‘Maleah looks very nice, very sweet,’” Sargent Mark Holbrook with the Houston Police Department said during a Sunday afternoon press conference. “The other man hits Darion in the head. Darion loses consciousness. Darion is able to wake up during a period of time and he was in the back of the blue truck.”
Around 6 p.m. on Saturday, Vence, in and out of consciousness, woke up to find himself and his son on Highway 6 in Sugar Land with his 1-year-old son, according to what he told authorities. Maleah was not with him. Vence said he walked to Methodist Hospital in Sugar Land and arrived around 11 p.m. on Saturday.
2/2: Photo of assault victim, Mr. Darion Vence, who is Maleah's stepfather, stated he was unconscious for almost 24 hrs. Detectives ask anyone who saw Darion or Maleah after 9 pm Friday (May 3) to 6 pm on Sat to contact HPD Homicide 713-308-3600 or @CrimeStopHOU at 713-222-TIPS. pic.twitter.com/nuZHA1EQPY
— Houston Police (@houstonpolice) May 5, 2019
The car Vence was driving Friday, which belongs to Bowens, was spotted on security footage Saturday afternoon at around 2 p.m. driving around Sugar Land. The vehicle is also missing. According to the police, the car has a temporary license tag, with number, 330-92G9.
“The motive in the kidnapping incident and its original north Houston location are unknown at this time. Investigators have been interviewing family members throughout the morning,” Houston police said.
