The mother of a 4-year-old girl reportedly abducted in Houston over the weekend made a tearful plea Monday night for the child's safe return.
Maleah Davis' stepfather, Darion Vence, reported her kidnapping, telling police he was driving to George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Friday night to pick up the girl's mother when he pulled over to check on a possible flat tire.
Vence claimed he was then attacked by two men, who held him and his two children — Maleah and her 2-year-old brother — before releasing him and the boy Saturday night.
The distraught mother begged Texans to keep their eyes peeled for her little girl.
"I just want to find Maleah and I love her so much. I love her so much," Brittany Bowens said Monday night. "If there's anybody that can help me, please, please, I just want to find my baby. I just want to find her."
Her mother, Brenda Bowens, had a direct message for the child.
"If she's listening to this, I want you to know that Nana loves you and I promise to take you to Lake Charles and I still want to do that," Brenda Bowens said. "I want to fulfill my promise that I told you the other day. And I miss you and I love you."
A volunteer search crew resumed its efforts Tuesday morning, scouring fields near the Houston airport, looking for the missing toddler.
The organization, Texas EquuSearch, which uses mounted patrols to search rugged terrains for missing persons, is also on the lookout for Brittany Bowens' silver Nissan, which Vence was driving Friday night and is also missing.
Tim Miller, founder and director of Texas EquuSearch, had his volunteers searching for that car in nearby Sugar Land, where security footage spotted it over the weekend.
"It'll hopefully stand out if this car is in this area, which I feel as though the car is somewhere in this area, close," Miller said.
