Friends, strangers rally for Maleah

SUGAR LAND — White star-shaped balloons. Pink heart-shaped balloons. Silver and pink crown-shaped balloons that said princess.

All floated away into the pale sky as the sun set Wednesday, carried northwest by the wind until several hundred onlookers, gathered in a Sugar Land park to honor missing 4-year-old Maleah Davis, could see them no more.

A group of friends who knew Maleah’s mom growing up organized the event in the missing girl’s honor. They wore pale blue T-shirts with the image of Maleah’s face. As the balloons floated away, one wrapped her arm around the other, who wiped away tears.

They wanted to add a moment of positivity to a story that otherwise felt so tragic, Dominique Bryant said.

“We’re doing this for Maleah,” said Bryant, 27.

It had been more than a week since Maleah was reported missing. The live-in boyfriend of her mother, Brittany Bowens, was taken into custody related to the case. The girl has not yet been reported found.

The crowd who came to honor the girl included neighbors, relatives and strangers.

Gathered at the park was a neighbor of Maleah’s who remembered seeing her outside.

A cousin of her biological father, thanked everyone for their support.

And the father of Jazmine Barnes, a 7-year-old shot in her mother’s car in what was initially believed to be a racially motivated incident. He saw in Maleah’s case another example of a child lost to violence.

“It’s a relapse moment for us,” her father, Christopher Cevilla said.

And then there were complete strangers, many of them mothers. If it were their child, they would want people looking.

There were two prayers. Poetry. Words from the audience. Some still held out hope she was alive. Others were less certain. They urged everyone to report abuse if they saw it and not let a scenario such as Maleah’s be repeated.

“I feel like she’s my own,” Valarie Berniard said. “It’s heartbreaking. It’s very much heartbreaking.”

Berniard had been off from her job at a nearby nursing home since 2 p.m., but stayed in the area to be a part of the event.

Before it started, she found herself in a conversation with Carol Smith, 65. They shared their concern for what happened.

“When anything happens to a young child ... it touches your heart, and you want answers,” said Smith, 65, a monitor technician at St Luke’s.

The search for Maleah on Wednesday continued in the small Brazoria County community of Rosharon as a small crew from Texas EquuSearch scoured the area where her mother’s boyfriend once worked a mail route, organizers said.

Later on Wednesday, Texas EquuSearch officials said they would be suspending their operations in the search for Maleah until something more substantive turns up.

“It is frustrating. We’ve been here before with other cases,” said Tim Miller, founder of the search and rescue outfit. “We’re hoping some new information comes in.”

The group will “continue to work closely with investigators, and follow-up on credible tips & leads,” according to a written statement.

Derion Vence, the live-in boyfriend of Maleah’s mother who faces charges of tampering with a corpse, reported the girl missing May 4, only to have his claims that she was abducted break down as the Houston Police Department continued its investigation.

Blood linked to the girl’s DNA was found inside the family’s apartment in the 9800 block of South Kirkwood Drive where Maleah lived with her mother, Brittany Bowens, and Vence, her fiancé, police said.

Adding to the grim prospect that Maleah may have been killed is that two police dogs sniffed out “the scent of decomposition” in the silver Nissan Altima that Vence was driving the night of the girl’s reported disappearance, documents state. The car was found in a Missouri City parking lot with a gas can and a laundry basket in the trunk.

Vence worked as amail carrier, Miller said, and had a route in the Rosharon area. EquuSearch has received several tips over the last few days indicating she might be in the area, or somewhere in Fort Bend County.

Miller said that Vence once indicated to family that he would hide a body in the marshy area.

“He actually said to his mother-in-law a year ago, he said, ‘man, if I ever killed anybody, I’ve got some places down in Rosharon where they’d never find the body,’” Miller said. He corroborated that with family members, he said.

He offered his support to family and community members grappling with Maleah’s disappearance.

“This is a baby,” Miller said. “This baby did not choose where it’s at right now and doesn’t want to be where it’s at right now. It’s heartbreaking. We’re human. I wish we weren’t. I wish we didn’t have feelings. Unfortunately, we do. I don’t want our emotions to get in the way. At times, that happens. God bless her. We’re not going to quit. We may suspend, but we’ll never quit.” emily.foxhall@chron.com jay.jordan@chron.com