Body found may be missing Shoreacres teen
Identity won’t be confirmed until after an autopsy
Volunteers found a body Saturday morning believed to be that of a Shoreacres teenager who disappeared one month ago while walking her dog.
The nonprofit group Texas Equusearch found a decomposing female around 11:35 a.m. in a wooded area on the corner of Westview and Baywood the street where 15-year- old Abigail “Abby” English lived, according to Cedrick Collier, a sergeant at the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, which is now leading the investigation.
The identity of the body cannot be confirmed until a Harris County medical examiner performs an autopsy, Collier said.
English went missing around 7 p.m. March 22, when she left her house to walk the family dog. The pet came back alone about an hour later, without its collar and leash.
English’s family contacted Shoreacres Police Department on March 23 to report the teen as a runaway, Collier said. On Wednesday, Equusearch became involved after the family thought English could be missing for other reasons.
VK Lynne, a musician in North Hollywood, Calif., and friend of English, described the teen as a shy, sweet musician who “deserved a better childhood than the one she was given,” without offering further detail.
English’s family moved to Shoreacres last year from California. Lynne said the two met after she donated a guitar to English through an organization. Lynne mourned English’s presumed death in a social media message Saturday.
“We liked each other right away, and that evolved into thrift store trips, Chinese food outings, hula-hooping in the park, and her even attending band rehearsal to meet the boys,” Lynne wrote. “... to hear the humanity ripped from Abigail English, the 15-year-old redhead who played bass, listened to Christian rock, and loved orange chicken the way Arno loves wings, killed her more palpably in my brain than any external force did.
“Abby, you are valued. You may have lived in obscurity, and died in the woods of a small town, but your life meant something.”
Equusearch and Shoreacres police scheduled a search around the teen’s home for Saturday. About 75 volunteers responded and fanned out in five teams beginning at 8 a.m. from their base at the San Jacinto College of Maritime Training Center, 3700 Old State Highway 146 in La Porte, according to Frank Black, an Equusearch search coordinator.
About 11 a.m., the group prepared to launch a boat to search some of the area’s numerous streams and gullies. They found the body in the wooded area shortly after, according to Collier.
The teen’s family declined to speak to the media, Black said.
Authorities created a crime scene where the body was found. More details and an identity will not likely be available until at least Monday, Collier said.