Police definitely doubted Derion’s story from the get-go. “I realize there’s a lot of blanks in that story, but we’re hoping that the public fill in the blanks,” Sergeant Mark Holbrook said in a statement. Police also circulated a photo of Derion at the hospital with cuts on his head to the public.
Facebook; pictured above Maleah sits on the floor while holding a slice of pizza and smiling big
Police then uncovered video footage of Maleah entering the apartment she shared with her mom, brother, and Derion the day she disappeared. In the video footage, she was seen walking into the family apartment next to Derion. This was just after her mom had left town and left her in his care.
Twitter; pictured above is the last footage of Maleah alive as she follows after Derion outside their apartment
Texas Equusearch and their volunteer network joined the hunt for Maleah, and along with authorities, every inch of the road where Derion claimed the kidnapping occurred was searched. Then the surrounding areas of the apartment the family shared were searched.
Suddenly, Brittany and Derion were banned from seeing their son Kourtland. The Department of Family and Protective Services and Brittany’s mom Brenda both filed separate motions, and Kourtland was sent to live with Derion’s mom. Remember when police said Maleah needed several brain surgeries?
Maleah had fallen and that caused the damage to her over a year ago and CPS took her into custody at that time. They suspected the fall that caused her injuries was no accident.
This led to the investigation into whether or not she was being abused, and it led to her brother being removed from the home during the course of her disappearance. Some people say that her disappearance and the fact that Derion now changed his story to police several times helped fuel the decision from CPS.
Maleah’s daycare owner said that her brother was dropped off one day shortly before she went missing, but she was not
Also around this time, the person who owned the daycare facility that Maleah went to said that Maleah had not been to daycare since the 26th of April. Derion did bring Kourtland in on May 3rd, but he did not bring Maleah that day. Maleah did not get allegedly kidnapped until May 4th…so where was she the day before she went missing and why was she not at daycare, but her brother was?
And then…police found Derion’s stolen car. It was sitting in the parking lot of a strip mall close to where he claimed he was attacked.
Click here to read part 2 of the story…
