Remains of child found near Hope

The remains of a child were found Friday near a highway in southwest Arkansas where a community activist says a man told him he had dumped the body of a missing 4-year-old Houston, Texas, girl, police said Friday.

Houston police went to Arkansas on Friday after community activist Quanell X told authorities the man arrested in the disappearance of Maleah Davis confessed he disposed of her body there just before he reported her missing in early May.

Houston Police Commander Michael Skillern, one of the officers who traveled to Arkansas, told reporters that authorities had found a child’s remains in a garbage bag near Interstate 30, close to Hope in Hempstead County in southwest Arkansas.

Quanell X said he spoke Friday in jail with Derion Vence, the ex-fiance of Maleah’s mother, who had said Maleah was abducted. Quanell X said that Vence told him he dumped her body in Arkansas.

Hempstead County Sheriff James Singleton said workers found the bag near Hope, which is about 30 miles northeast of the Texas-Arkansas border.

Singleton said the medical examiner’s office in Little Rock likely will have to identify the remains.

“If this is the little girl, we want to make sure that we treat it with respect and dignity,” Singleton said.

At a news conference in Houston, Executive Assistant Police Chief Troy Finner said authorities won’t be able to confirm if the remains are those of Maleah until an autopsy is performed.

It was unclear how long the identification process would take, Finner said.

Finner said Maleah’s family had been notified of Friday’s developments in the case and he expects a murder charge will be filed.

Vence, 27, had claimed he, Maleah and his 2-year-old son were abducted on May 4 by a group of men in a truck. He said he and his son were freed the next day but the kidnappers kept Maleah and his silver Nissan Altima. Police said Vence’s story kept changing and didn’t add up.

Police arrested Vence and charged him with tampering with evidence, specifically a human corpse. He remains jailed..

Quanell X said that during his jail visit, Vence told him Maleah is dead and he confessed he dumped the girl’s body in Arkansas off the side of a road. Quanell X declined to comment on what Vence told him regarding how Maleah had died.