Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - WHO'S LYING? The search for 4-year-old Maleah Davis INTENSIFIES!

Episode Date: May 22, 2019

Since beautiful 4-year-old Maleah Davis went missing some three weeks ago, the mystery has taken a number of twists and turns. As the search for the little girl continues, the father of the main suspect is speaking out, and he appears to be pinning her disappearance on Maleah's mother.Nancy interviews Tim Miller, the founder and director of Texas Equusearch, who has been heavily involved in the case from the start.Nancy's expert panel also weighs In:John Cardillo:  Former NYPDDr. Brian Russell:   Psychologist and lawyerKathleen Murphy:  Family AttorneyLeigh Egan:  Crime Online Investigative Reporter Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A missing five-year-old girl presumably in danger, little Malia Davis, her stepfather Darion Vance. His story to police details a violent attack and a 24-hour period where he was not conscious. It begins Friday evening around 9. Vance tells police he was headed to pick up Malia's mother from Bush Airport. He says he pulled over near 59 and Greens to check what he thought was a flat tire. Vance told detectives three Hispanic men pulled up in a blue Chevy pickup truck. Two Hispanic males get out. One of them makes a comment saying that Malia looks very nice, looks very sweet. The other male hits Darian in the head. Vance says he was knocked unconscious and the next 24 hours he recalls nothing. You're hearing the very latest on Malia Davis, a four-year-old little girl that was at a KTRK TV. Malia Davis still missing. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.

Straight out to Lee Egan, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. The story stinks to me. There's something wrong with the story. The dad says, the stepdad, Darian Vince, says that he's on the way to the airport to pick up the mom, and he hears what he thinks is a flat tire and gets out. What happens then, Lee? Well, he says he gets out of the car, Nancy, and three Hispanic men pull up to him in a blue Chevrolet pickup truck and start making comments about how pretty Malia is, how sweet she is. And then they end up hitting him in the head and knocking him out,

putting him and his little boy in the bed of the truck. And at some point, they end up driving back to where they hit him in the head and dropping him off in the same area and then driving away with Malia. They leave him and his little boy, toddler boy, 2 years old, leave him and the little boy there and drive away with Malia. That's his story. Take a listen to our friends at KTRK. 3 p.m. Saturday, a surveillance image shows Vince's car in Sugar Land. 6 p.m. Saturday, Vince tells police he woke up on the side of Highway 6 near the Sugar Land Mall,

his one-year-old son with him, but no Malia. He tells police he tried to flag down cars for help but had no luck. Just before 11 p.m. is when police say he made it to Methodist Hospital, less than a mile from where he says he was dropped off. We're looking for, we're hoping the public can give us any information about anybody who has seen Darian during that period of time because he doesn't really know where he was or what's going on there. Anybody who's seen the vehicle, the silver Nissan. Darian Vance told investigators he was driving to Bush Intercontinental Airport to pick up Malia's mom.

Vance says Malia and his two-year-old son were in the car. While near Highway 59 in Greens Road, Vance told police he heard a noise and pulled over to check his tire. While outside the car, he says two men pulled up in a blue Chevy pickup. One of them makes a comment saying that Malia looks very nice, looks very sweet. Vance says one of the men hit him in the head and he lost consciousness. Friday night, Malia's mother had to call someone else to pick her up when Vance and the children never showed up. Sometime between Friday night or Saturday, Vance says he woke up and was in the back of the pickup with both children. But three men were also in the car.

He told police he passed out again and woke up at 6 p.m. Saturday near Highway 6 and 59 in Sugar Land. His son was with him. Malia was gone. So mysteriously, he's got his own biological son, but his stepdaughter, Malia Davis, a four-year-old beautiful little girl, is missing. Here's KHOU-TV. Vance says he walked down the road to Methodist Hospital, where he was treated for a head injury and reported Malia missing nearly 24 hours after the alleged assault that left Vance unconscious. I realize there's a lot of blanks in that story,

but we're hoping the public can fill in the blanks. Sunday morning, Malia's case became an amber alert. That afternoon, traffic cameras spotted Vince's silver car in Sugar Land, near where the family and friends handed out flyers, followed by search and recovery groups starting their work Monday morning. KTRK-TV's Steve Campion talking with a victim's hero. Texas Echo Search Search Tim Miller. Within the last 90 minutes, the search for Malia Davis shifted more than 30 miles away to southwest Houston near Kirkwood and Bissonnette. We are in trouble.

Bottom line, we are in trouble. Of course, I believe in miracles, and we've had many of them. I don't think we're going to have a good ending. I hope we have an ending. The group helping Houston police look for the missing four-year-old girl is Texas EquiSearch. Their leader Tim Miller says they repositioned close to where the stepfather Darion Vince calls home. We hope more calls come in. It's leading us in different directions. We hope the investigation is going to lead us there. And it's all about her. And joining me right now, the founder and director of Texas EquiSearch, Tim Miller. Tim Miller, it doesn't make sense to me. You and I have talked quite a bit about this particular case, Malia's disappearance. You're telling me, and you've

been on the ground looking, in the air looking, with dogs looking for Malia, that they, you seem to suggest to me that they take the three Hispanic males, take Deere and Vince in a big loop, and then bring him right back to where they attacked him? Yeah, they bring him right back, and he's at the corner of 59 and Highway 6, which is the very busiest intersection in Sugar Land, trying to flag somebody down, and he claims he walked to the hospital. But, you know, we've got a little hole in that story, too. His vehicle that dropped him off at the hospital. Okay, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, wait,

wait a minute. Tim Miller, he said nobody would help him. He had his son. You can see the hospital video of him walking in with the one-year-old son. What did you just say about a car dropping him off? Yeah, a car dropped him off. That certainly resembles the car that supposedly was missing and then found that Thursday. And actually, when they interviewed his brother, Joe, they asked, Joe, can you explain why he was dropped off in his vehicle? And his brother, Joe, said, well, I'm just not going to comment on that right now. So I guess they gave him his car back. I'm not really sure. You mean the perpetrators that take four-year-old Malia and do God only knows what with her, drop him off, give him curb service.

To John Cardillo joining me, former NYPD. John Cardillo outside of emergency rooms and hospitals. There is almost always video surveillance cameras. Why? Because a lot of crimes are solved at emergency rooms and hospitals. People being dropped off by fellow gang members after a shooting. You want to get that license plate number. But for this kind of material evidence, right, a vehicle that that a potential suspect said might have been many holes in it that if I were the investigator on this case, I would have this guy in an interrogation room night and day until we figured out what happened here.

Man, his story stinks. Tim Miller, tell me what you have been doing to find Malia, if you can fit it all in. Oh, God, we've searched everywhere that we know where to search. Starting out up where he claims this happened, moved down by his apartment, went to Sugar Land, south of Sugar Land. We actually met with postal inspectors, which he did have a mail route down in the Rochere area. We got... Wait, let me stop you right there, Tim Miller. You know, I get carried away and I break in. I know it's rude, but I've just got to stop you right now. Because, as you know, Darian Vince, the stepfather's father, is stating that's not true.

His son did not have a mail route. That's all fabricated by the cops. As a matter of fact, listen to stepfather Darian Vince's father. When he went out that first night to look for Malia, he got mobbed. And then he didn't, yeah, and then he didn't understand. He didn't trust her or her baby father because they came to him real crazy. Vince also claims blood tied to Malia found in his son's apartment hallway and bathroom and used to justify Darian's arrest came from another child. This hurt brother's blood from his toothbrush.

Detectives insist they test it for family DNA and stand by their warrant. They also stand by last week's search of a field along Darian's old post office route. My son never worked on a post route ever in his life. But Darian's dad says his son worked just three days for the post office through a temp service and never had one. You're hearing our friend at KHOU, Tim Miller, you hear his bio dad saying that's not true, it's all a big lie. Tell me how you verified he did have a mail route.

We actually met with two postal inspectors that came out there. They gave us his mail route, exactly where he delivered mail, and then it said that he was on payroll for nearly a year. So we didn't act direct from a postal inspector. So I don't think that they are fabricating this story. I find it very difficult to believe that Dr. Brian Russell, psychologist, lawyer, host of Fatal Vows, hit series on investigation discovery and author, that a postal inspector is going to lie to Tim Miller about Darian Vance working there. He doesn't have a dog in the fight.

He's got no skin in the game. Why would he lie to Tim Miller? I agree. He wouldn't have a dog in the fight. He's got no skin in the game. Why would he lie to Tim Miller? I agree. He wouldn't. You know, as soon as I heard about this, it gave me shades of Susan Smith. Remember her? Yeah, I remember her. Yeah.

So, bottom line, Tim Miller, when you approach a postal inspector and you go, did Darian Vance ever work for you? Did you show him a picture? Are you sure he knew who Darian Vance is? He knew exactly who he was. And then we actually talked to somebody at the post office, and they said that they terminated him because he just liked to hang out and smoke cigarettes more than concentrate on his job. So, you know, it's pretty apparent that everybody in this family is not capable of telling the truth. And there's only one person that can tell the truth.

And unfortunately, we cannot find her. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. My son never worked on a post route ever in his life. There you hear the stepfather, Darian Vince's father, Joe Vince, denying his son even ever worked as a mail carrier. Why is that significant that he did work as a mail carrier for well over a year? Tim Miller joining me, founder, director of Texas EquiSearch. When a child goes missing, you know Tim Miller will show up with all of his forces. I'm talking horseback, ATVs, air searches, cadaver dogs, scent dogs.

Somehow he assembles them all. Tim Miller, why is it so significant that we nailed down the truth about this mail route? Well, I think we nailed it down from the postal inspectors. And even besides that, Nancy, Quanell X called me up and he was actually with Brittany. And I told Quanell, I said, Quanell, and this is before we went with Postal Inspector, but Quannell, we understand that he had a mail route down in the Rose-Sharon area. And he was actually with Brittany, so he asked Brittany, did he have a mail route? And Brittany said, yeah, he had a mail route. And so I asked Quannell, I said, ask her if she knows the route that he had. That's an area I think we want to start searching. And she said that she if she knows the route that he had. That's an area I think we want to start searching.

And she said that she did not know the route that he had, but one of her girlfriends actually rode with him one time on the route. So she would get with that girlfriend to see if she remembered the route. And then we got with the post office, and then we actually got with the postal inspector. So according to Brittany, yes, he had a mail route. According to according to Brittany, yes, he had a mail route. According to the postal inspectors, yes, he had a mail route. So apparently, dad didn't know what was going on in his son's life. The significance of the stepdad having a mail route.

John Cardillo, former NYPD, why is it so important? Well, it goes to credibility. I mean, if everybody's lying about him having it. Okay, you know what, Cardillo? No, because that mail route takes him all the way through the swampy or wooded areas in Rose Sharon, a perfect place to hide a body. Hello, I'm queuing in with myself. Somebody help me. Well, what I'm saying is that you got to start somewhere, right? So first it goes to credibility. You were a prosecutor.

You need probable cause. You might have to get a warrant. If in those desolate areas there's a mini storage facility where you find that on his mail route he paid for cash at a mini storage, well, then you're going to need a warrant to be able to crack that lock open, to use those bolt cutters. So first you've got to start with his credibility. That's a pretty bold and egregious lie that he claimed that he didn't have a job and his family's claiming he didn't have a job that he did. Then you do what Tim did. You go along that route, which I suspect investigators are doing now because it was very telling language in a clip you played. He's being charged with tampering with a corpse. So they're running on the premise that the little girl is now deceased. Investigators are going to go through

every inch of that mail route. They're going to look for those deserted areas. They're going to look for those mini storage facilities, abandoned warehouses, abandoned buildings. But if there's anything locked, you need a warrant. So you got to start with his credibility. And that's why I started there. Tim Miller, he's got a good point. Tell me what you found on the mail route. Oh, we found many, many isolated areas.

And we've searched them. Some of them we have to search again because unfortunately, after Lone Leap disappeared, we had a tremendous amount of rain, some areas we could not get to. And, you know, the other thing is that we know when he left, he had that blue clothes basket with a garbage bag in it that we feel as though that was the last. And then when we got the vehicle located, the blue clothes basket was still in there. Lee Egan, Tim Miller is talking about a blue clothes basket and a plastic bag. Let's just

go back now off the mail route and to the apartment. Tell me what happened. Okay, on May 3rd, he was seen by himself walking out of his apartment holding a blue clothes basket. Inside the basket was a large black trash bag. And according to what police said, the way he was walking made it seem like he was carrying something pretty heavy in that bag. Take a listen to this. Police said that the defendant told them that there should not be any blood in his apartment. The officer reviewed video surveillance then from the porch of the neighbor's apartment next to the defendant's apartment. And the footage showed that at 1.40 p.m. on Friday, May the 3rd, that they recognized the defendant carrying out from the apartment, outside the apartment,

from inside to outside, a large blue laundry basket with a large black trash bag inside. Then it is seen to walk out of the camera's view and then return about three minutes later without the basket. He's then observed walking out of the apartment with cleaning supplies, including bleach. They did not view the complainant ever leaving the apartment. They did see the defendant leave later with only his two-year-old son from the apartment. Tim Miller, founder and director of Texas EquiSearch, where did that basket, that blue laundry basket, turn up?

It turned up in the trunk of the car along with a brand new gas can in it that had just a smidgen of gas. So, of course, when I was flying and we were searching, one of the things we were looking for was any areas that looked like it was burned. We feel as though now that it's very possible that he burned that little body. Take a listen to law enforcement now. On Friday, May the 10th, the silver Nissan Altima driven by the defendant was processed for evidence that there was a blue laundry basket, similar in appearance to the blue laundry basket that he's observed on the video surveillance carrying out of the apartment on the night of the 3rd. There were canine dogs that were trained to sniff the scent of a cadaver that walked around the vehicle and other vehicles in the parking lot,

and both of the dogs reacted to the trunk of the silver Nissan that the defendant had driven and that the blue laundry basket was recovered from, indicating that the dogs were responding to the scent of human decomposition in the vehicle. Now, they looked high and low for the car before it was found. Even the evidence surrounding the car doesn't make any sense. Darian Vance says he was attacked when he got out of the car with a flat tire. The car turns up alone and abandoned in a parking lot. But as Tim Miller pointed out to you, hospital surveillance shows the stepdad was dropped off in the very same car.

Listen to Detective Ken Friasia. We've had a bolo out on the car, hoping we'd find him with it. We've obviously found the car, but yeah, we're still looking for him right now. The car looks fine. The car, everything looks normal on the car the tires look okay doesn't mean they weren't changed at some point I don't know I don't have anything on that really. A citizen saw the car called the local PD Missouri City or Sugarloin I think it was Missouri City they contacted us and we came out here. We looked inside we haven't done any searching for anything just we just took a glance inside because it was bright.

The windows are semi-tinted. And everything, like I said, looked normal, like a normal car. The trunk looks normal, too. We did not see the keys in the car. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Are you worried that you can't find the sneak killer? Is he considered a person of interest? I would like to talk to him, but right now, I'm not concerned that we haven't found him.

We're not, no, I'm not concerned that we haven't found him we're not no I'm not concerned about that you think you would think that if you know your loved one is missing that you'd be coming forward and so he may have a legitimate reason I haven't spoken with him right now we're still trying to pull that and see what the angles of the cameras are. I have not personally viewed those. So we have officers in these businesses looking at to see if there's any cameras focused on the parking lot. And, of course, if there is, we're going to backtrack and get everything we can.

You said it looks like a normal car. I can't see a child's seat. What else is in there? Just miscellaneous clothes, papers. It's a clean car. Is there a child's seat in there? Yeah, I think I can believe I saw one in there, yeah. Wow. Detective Ken Vigia at Oppressor.

I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. Where is four-year-old Malia Davis? Has the trail gone cold? With me, Tim Miller, founder, director of Texas EquiSearch. You just heard the detective say that the car looked normal, but that's not what your cadaver dog said. No, cadaver dog is actually alerted on the trunk of the car. Now, in your expertise, Tim Miller, I've worked with a lot of cadaver dogs as recently as last week. There are many ways of alerting. They may sit down when they smell

something. They may start barking and growling and scratching in a particular spot. They have different ways of alerting. But you're telling me, Tim Miller, you know for a fact cadaver dogs hit on Darian Vince's car. That is the information I got from homicide investigators. Wow. Yes. Directed from them. I wasn't there. But yes, that's the information that I got from homicide.

Lee Egan, that is major. That changes the entire focus of this investigation. And another thing, hold on, Lee. Let me go to Dr. Brian Russell, psychologist, lawyer, host of Fatal Vows on Investigation Discovery, author Stop Moaning, Start Owning on Amazon. Dr. Brian, why didn't he go straight to police after his pit stop at the hospital? Did you hear the detective saying, yeah, I'd like to talk to the stepfather, Darian Vince. We haven't found him. Why wasn't he at the police station lying on the front step screaming, where is my stepdaughter? Well, exactly. It's one of those situations where it doesn't take a PhD to think about what would I do if I were truly in the situation that he says he was in. To John Cardillo, former NYPD, what do you make of what Miller is telling you?

Well, I've learned a long time ago, don't second guess the dogs. These dogs, typically when they hit on something, and if homicide investigators are going to be comfortable enough saying the cadaver dogs hit, then those dogs hit on something. And now this investigation is taking a considerably different turn. This is going to be a recovery and I believe a homicide investigation at this point. You know, you've looked everywhere, Tim Miller, even at a haunted house out in Rochere in Texas. Why at a haunted house? I mean, you know, like a Halloween haunted

house. Well, that area was actually very, very close to his mill route. Things where it's a lot of property out there. You can drive in many areas and it's very isolated. And so it was an area we felt as though that we had to eliminate. I've got a couple people out today. We're getting some calls in that feel as though that they've seen a vehicle like that. So even though we don't have a big search going on, we every day have people out there that's driving, looking at areas, following these leads. I talk with homicide at least twice a day. And, you know, unfortunately, you know, I'm almost at that point of thinking possibly

this little girl, it's never going to be found. We know where she's not. And we just hope that one call comes in and we can get her little body located. Tell me why you believe Malia's body was burned. Well, I think every indication is there. I mean, everything's been alive from the beginning. Seeing him go out with a closed basket was good. You know, the wood in the apartment.

You know, things just don't add up. I think the biggest miracle that we can hope for now is to find that little body. And of course, I'm getting crucified because people are saying over the place for, you know, 30 plus days. And we had things to do. We don't have anything on this bench. We don't have anything. So we can't shoot an arrow in the sky. And wherever it comes down, start searching. Take a listen to Fox 4 Houston. Police have refused to say whether they believe 26-year-old Darian Vance killed Malia Davis. He is charged with tampering with evidence, specifically a human body.

A prosecutor says trained dogs detected the scent of human decomposition in Vance's vehicle and blood evidence matching the four-year-old girl was found in his apartment. Vance told police on May 4th that men in a truck abducted him, Malia, and his two-year-old girl was found in his apartment. Bence told police on May 4th that men in a truck abducted him, Malia, and his two-year-old son, and that these men had freed him and the boy. On Sunday, a crowd of more than 100 people gathered near Malia's home to express their concern about the girl's disappearance.

Some prayed. Everybody wants the truth. We all want the truth, you know. Why can't they say the truth, you know? Where is she? Where is she? So they can lay her to rest. Police have said they do not believe Malia is still alive. They also say Darian Vance, the suspect, could face additional charges, including murder. To Lee Egan joining me, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, this is leading me to the apartment itself. What do we know about the apartment? Deary and Vince,

the stepdad, share with Malia Davis, four-year-old little girl, his bio son between one and two years old, and the mom, Brittany Bowen. Well, Nancy, they shared an apartment together in southwest Houston. It is a first-floor apartment, and it's facing away, you know, the security camera. You can see the apartment. There's only one way out of that apartment for all of them, unless you go through a bedroom door window. So they all shared the apartment together, and then within a few days after Malia went missing, disappeared, police did go to that apartment and they did, you know, did a thorough investigation and they did find blood evidence inside the apartment that they matched back to Malia through her DNA, through her toothbrush. NYPD. I'm surprised they waited days after her disappearance to process it. But the reality is,

it doesn't matter because they found blood evidence, blood that links back to Malia Davis. They found the blood evidence. They now have the forensic evidence. And going back to Tim's point, I think Tim is right. And I understand why he's so frustrated because EquiSearch has had such tremendous success. I feel the only way they're going to find out what truly happened to this little girl is through exhaustive, exhaustive interrogation of this guy. And I suspect investigators have him in a room pretty much every waking moment and beyond. You want him exhausted. You want him hungry.

You want him thirsty. You want him essentially begging for a Coke and a Big Mac so he'll give you something that'll indicate where you can find this little girl's remains. Take a listen to Cornell X. Many people did not know that he had dismembered this beautiful baby. You said that in the interview. What makes you say that? What information are you hearing that leads you to say that? Well, there was blood splatter evidence in the apartment.

There was luminol spray and chemical spray that was all over the apartment after homicide investigators left. When you look at the video footage extensively, you can tell what was going on. And you can tell he made two trips to buy big bottles of bleach. This was a man who never cleaned the house up ever. But he's buying big bottles of bleach, getting a big garbage bag, and there's blood splatter, et cetera, around the drainage area of the house. Why would human body tissue be in the drain system? Why would human body tissue be in the pipes under the sink,

in the pipes under the bathtub? Why would that be? Why would there be human body tissue be in the pipes under the sink, in the pipes under the bathtub? Why would there be human body tissue found around the creases and cracks of the bathtub? Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Justice for Malia! Justice for Malia! As the courthouse, people directed their anger towards Malia's mother, all eyes on Brittany Bowens as she walked down the hall not saying a word. Vents, her ex-fiancé, did not appear. Critics questioning why she would leave her little girl with the man she says was dangerous. You have so many holes in your story. I don't believe you at all. I don't believe you. I will never believe you. You're just as guilty as him. She needs to be locked up along with him. She deserves to be locked up because that's not a real mother. A real mother would protect their child at any means necessary and she didn't do that. There are 28 hours from May 3rd to May 4th. Vance is unaccounted for, according to police.

They believe he used that time to dispose of the little girl's body and all of this as her mother was out of town. As parents, we've got to be much wiser, you know, of the people who we choose to put in, you know, around our kids. That is ABC 13 Jessica Willey covering a protest at the courthouse. Now people lashing out, not only at stepfather Darian Vince, as Tim Miller of Texas Equal Search and others continue to look for the little girl or her body. People lashing out at the mother as well. And maybe this has something to do with it. Listen.

You can't deny the pure joy that jumps off of 4-year-old Malia's face in the pictures that have been in the public eye since her disappearance. Those were perhaps the happier days. Court records we uncovered paint a darker picture of the little girl's life over the last several months. Documents we obtained from the Harris County clerk show that last August, the Department of Family and Protective Services received a report alleging physical abuse and neglectful supervision of Malia. She was living with her mother, Brittany Bowens, and stepfather, Darian Vance, at the time.

The state got involved after Malia's mother brought her to the hospital with a head injury. Doctors had to do surgery to remove half of her skull. When Malia got out of ICU, doctors ordered that she wear a helmet for 12 to 24 months while she healed. But that was not Malia's first trip to the ER. You're hearing our friend Cheryl Mercedes at KHOU to Lee Egan, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. What more do we know about this little girl's history with Family Protective Services? I mean, she's only four years old. That's four times 12. That's only 48 months. So how can that be, this many visits to the doctor in the hospital? Well, all signs, in my opinion, point to abuse. But of course, Brittany says that that never

happened. She says that the little girl fell. She said she was at a chair, and she fell and hit her head on a marble table. Now, CPS did go out to their apartment, but the investigator did not measure the height from the chair to the table, so we're not sure, you know, how far she fell. But either way, doctors couldn't determine definitively that it was from a fall or was it from abuse. They couldn't tell. So, you know, she had the operations, the surgeries, and apparently Brittany completed her parenting classes and they allowed the little girl to temporarily go back to her home. Couldn't tell? That is a load of BS. Child Protective Services needs to be strung up along with Darian Vince.

Because you're sitting in a chair, even a high chair, at most you fall three feet. This child's head injury was so severe she had swelling and bleeding on the brain. They had to remove a big chunk of her skull and place it either in a refrigerated or frozen atmosphere or in her abdomen until the pressure could come off of her brain and then reattach it to her skull. That's how serious the fall was. But this is what they say. According to records, on July 10th, Bowens took Malia to the ER after she was throwing up blood. Doctors reported Malia was extremely lethargic. Malia was treated and sent home the very next week on July 28th. Malia was back in the hospital for a cut to her forehead. Medical professionals reported she had blood just outside of her brain. Neither parent was able to tell doctors what could have caused it. Bowen said she was hurt after falling from a chair,

but medical professionals said that would not have caused the serious internal injuries. Doctors reported they were concerned about abuse, but in the end, the court found they could not confirm whether or not those injuries were caused by abuse. That's Cheryl Mercedes reporting out of KHOU. I mean, when I hear that, Kathleen Murphy, family lawyer, it just hurts me because the doctors are saying, I don't know how this could have happened by accident from a fall. The doctors, the medical doctors are saying that, but CPS puts the child back in the home and now we think she's been dismembered, Kathleen. It was clearly not properly investigated.

It was clearly not properly investigated. And this child is dead, Nancy. This child is dead because of the court systems, because of CPS, because of the mother, because of her boyfriend. And because nobody stood up and stood up for this child in a way that counted. She and her two little siblings returned to the home per an order from a judge. Tim Miller, founder and director of Texas Equal Search, you're out there beating your brains out, sweating, wet in the rain, digging through some remote mail route in East Houston, Texas. You can't find anything.

And now you know, a judge and Child Protective Services handed this little girl back over to the stepdad on a silver platter. Well, I think CPS has blood on their hands. I think a judge has blood on his hands or her hands, whatever judge it was. And then, you know, the report that we got is that when she did have that brain injury, that Brittany's mother came home and that baby was actually going into seizures. And Brittany's mother is the one that said, Brittany, you get this baby to the hospital. There's a child that's having seizures and stepdad and biological mom are not even taking it to the emergency room. As Brittany's mother said, get that baby to the hospital.

That baby probably would have died then if it wouldn't have been for Brittany's mother. So they had to force the mom, talk the mom into taking the baby to the hospital. Well, Nancy, you know, another thing I don't understand is that little Malia was at that house for an hour and a half before Brittany went to the airport. And nobody's going to tell me an apartment that small, that mom wouldn't know that her little daughter was running around the apartment. And then why did she leave that early when her flight didn't leave until 4.30 in the afternoon? So nobody's story, you know, matches up to anything that's going on in this case. Not one person's story.

Nobody's story is matching up, Tim Miller, to Kathleen Murphy, family lawyer. Kathleen, I'm trying to piece together how many times this child was reported to CPS. CPS does nothing. What the child had endured for four years her entire life. She was methodically and regularly and consistently abused. And she was kept out of preschool for many days. After she was returned in February, their other child was at preschool. This child was not at preschool. And I believe this child was consistently, regularly, and habitually abused. I believe the mother knew about it. Take a listen to our friends at ABC News. The bombshell allegations in the case of that missing four-year-old girl in Houston.

A spokesperson for the mother of Malia Davis making graphic abuse claims against her stepfather. Here's ABC's Ariel Reshef. Tonight, a spokesman for the mother of missing four-year-old Malia Davis making chilling new allegations, claiming Malia's stepfather was physically abusive toward the child. We need the truth about what happened to young Malia to come out. Sources say this image from a surveillance camera shows Malia's stepfather, Darion Vance, leaving home on Friday with a laundry basket carrying a plastic bag. And they say the next night he's seen walking into a hospital

after he claims he woke up on the side of the road and Malia was gone. Today, Malia's mother pressed on why she is only now sharing these allegations. This mother has suffered a lot of abuse in her life. Okay, we're hearing it from all sides about what happened and why nothing was done about it. Tim Miller, founder, director of Texas EquiSearch, it seems to me that this child suffered her whole life, and now you are left looking for her body. And Nancy, we're going to do everything we can do to find that body.

I don't care where it takes us. Sure, we wish stepdad would talk, but when the rest of him, of course, he loaded up immediately, and they anticipated he would do that. So there's no cooperation from him whatsoever. Mom knew this was going on for a long time. So she's certainly not going to be mother of the year by no means. And CPS dropped the ball. Judge dropped the ball. The ball was dropped on a little girl that did not have a choice in life probably when she was born. And again, I said this before, I'll say it again.

Little Malia, at some place she did not choose to be, at some place she doesn't want to be. And there's one person that knows, and of course we won't talk. Tip line 713-308-3600 or 713-222-TIPS. 713-222-8477. The search for Malia goes on. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.