As a desperate search continues for 4-year-old Maleah Davis, her mother says she’s terrified for her child, who recently underwent brain surgery and requires medical care.
“My spirit is broken. I feel so lost,” the girl’s mother, Brittany Bowens, told KTRK. “I can’t concentrate. I can’t focus. It’s just ... it’s so overwhelming for me. It doesn’t seem real.”
Maleah went missing, her stepfather told police, after three men hit him over the head and abducted him, his 2-year-old son and the girl before taking off with just the girl.
Maleah vanished sometime after 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday night, according to Houston police, who say the stepfather, Darion Vence, suffered some memory loss after being hit in the head and doesn’t clearly recall what happened during that almost 24-hour period.
Authorities are searching for a blue pickup truck Vence told police the abductors were driving, as well as for Bowens’ silver Nissan, which Vence was driving at the time Maleah vanished.
“We’d love for the public to help us so we can fill in the blanks in this story,” said Sgt. Mark Holbrook, according to the Washington Post.
Vence told police that he, Maleah and his 2-year-old son were traveling Friday night around 9 to the airport to pick up his wife when he had car trouble. He said a blue pickup truck pulled over and two men got out.
Vence said the two commented on how “nice” and “sweet” Maleah seemed before a third man in the van came up behind him and hit him in the head, knocking him unconscious.
He said the trio kidnapped him and the two children, driving around with them all night before dumping him and his son on the side of a road Saturday evening and taking off with Maleah.
He and the toddler walked to a hospital, where Vence reported Maleah missing and said he had little recall of details due to the head injury that had him in and out of consciousness while they were held captive.
On Monday, volunteers were still handing out fliers, and they and police were searching a field near where Vence said they were kidnapped, ABC News reported.
Tim Miller of Texas EquuSearch told reporters his group is praying that Maleah is found alive.
“We want to start checking every single dumpster just in case,” Miller told KTRK. “We believe in miracles. Let’s hope we get one.”
Maleah was last seen wearing a pink bow in her hair, a light blue zip-up jacket, blue jeans and sneakers.