STREAM EXCLUSIVE ORIGINALS

Blood In Maleah Davis’ Home Matches DNA On Her Toothbrush; Signs Of Decay Found In Stepfather’s Car

The child's mother says Derion Vence snapped after she called off their engagement.

While the search for 4-year-old Maleah Davis continues in Houston, investigators found drops of blood matching DNA on the child’s toothbrush in her stepfather’s apartment.

According to court documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle, the blood was found in the bathroom and a hallway leading to it at the apartment where Maleah lived with her mother, Brittany Bowens, and her mother’s fiance, Derion Vence.

Officials used a chemical spray on the apartment and discovered more traces of blood someone attempted to clean up.

On May 11, Vence was charged with tampering with evidence. He is being held on a $1 million bond.

Harris County Assistant District Attorney, Chris Handley, said Vence may soon be hit with a murder charge, reported the Houston Chronicle.

  • While in police custody, Vence, 26, told investigators "there should be no blood in the home and that no one was recently bleeding.”

    Additionally, two police dogs, trained to find cadavers, sniffed out "the scent of decomposition" in the silver Nissan Altima Vence drove the night Maleah was reported missing.

    On May 4, Vence reported Maleah was abducted by three Hispanic men while they were on the way to pick up Bowens from the airport.

    However, a surveillance camera on an upstairs neighbor's porch captured Vence on May 3 entering and exiting the apartment with a laundry basket packed with a large black trash bag, according to a probable cause document.

    "The basket appears heavy due to the stance (Vence) uses when walking," the investigators wrote in the court documents.

    The second time Vence left the home, Vence appeared to be carrying a bottle of Clorox bleach.

    The same camera that caught Vence with the supplies also recorded Maleah during what may be the last time she was seen alive, reported ABC 13.

  • In the video from April 30, Maleah is seen wearing a pink tutu and walking behind Vence into the home.

    On the day Vence says he left to pick up Bowens at the airport, the video shows Maleah's biological father, Craig Davis Jr., at the apartment. Davis picked up his 5-year-old son, who was also in Vence's care at the time. Davis was not allowed by Vence to see Maleah, ABC 13 reports.

    When Vence left for the airport, the surveillance footage showed him and his biological 1-year-old son leaving the home, even though he said Maleah was also in his care.

    In August 2018, Maleah and her brothers were removed from the home of Vence and Bowens after CPS investigated a head injury Maleah suffered. In February 2019, they were placed back in the home.

    On May 8, four days after Maleah was reported missing, an emergency court order banned Bowens and Vence from seeing their children.

    Police also found inconsistencies in the story Vence told about how he arrived at the airport after he allegedly “blacked out.”

    He first told police that he walked to Houston Methodist Hospital, but he later said he hitched a ride with "an unknown female" to the hospital with his son.

    Investigators later found footage of Vence arriving at the hospital in Bowens' Nissan Altima. Police have not yet revealed if someone else was driving the car for Vence. On May 9, police found the Altima in a Missouri City parking lot.

  • Civil rights activist Quanell X, who represents Maleah's mother, has shed light on Vence and Bowen's relationship. According to Quanell, Vence is Bowen’s ex-fiancé.

    Quanell also suggested that Vence may have “snapped” after Bowens recently called off the engagement.

    "When that happened, I believe that he psychologically snapped – already on top of being abusive to Maleah. He did this to hurt the mother in a way that she would never recover," Quanell X told CBS News.

    Vence is scheduled to appear in court Monday, May 13.

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