Maleah Was Previously Removed From Home After Abuse Allegations

Among concerns raised early by Maleah’s disappearance were that she was recovering from recent brain surgery, according to police.

Police did not identify the reason for the surgery. But speaking alongside Maleah’s mom at a news conference on Friday, Bowen’s spokesman and neighborhood activist Quanell X alleged that Vence had a history of spanking and beating the child, with Bowens as a witness, reports Fox26.

“He confronted her and threatened her, that ‘She better not do it.’ So she helped him shield the truth of that abuse of Maleah from doctors,” Quanell told reporters.

Maleah and her two brothers earlier were removed from the girl’s home after allegations of abuse, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services told CNN. In February they were returned, but a judge called for child protective services to check on the family at least once a month.

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In an interview with CNN, Bowens denied abusing Maleah, saying, “We’re not those kinds of people.”

Quanell X also said Bowens recently had broken off her engagement with Vence, after allegedly discovering that Vence had sent sexually explicit images of himself to another man.

“She told him that she was giving back his ring, and that she was not going to marry him,” Quanell said at the press conference, where Bowens deferred questions to him. “I believe that caused him to snap in anger against young Maleah.”

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It’s unknown when Maleah may have disappeared or been killed. The probable cause affidavit says that while Bowens was away in Massachusetts to attend her father’s funeral, Maleah’s biological father stopped by the apartment to pick up his 5-year-old son, who along with the girl had been left in Vence’s care while the mother was away, according to the Chronicle.

Vence refused to let the other man, Craig Davis, see the girl, the affidavit states.

The blood evidence tied to Maleah was found in a bathroom of the apartment and a hallway that leads to it, according to the document. Police said that chemical spraying revealed locations in the apartment where blood had allegedly been cleaned up.

When asked, Vence told investigators “there should be no blood in the home and that no one was recently bleeding,” according to the document.

The surveillance video at the apartment complex allegedly “captures the stepdad coming out of the apartment with a bottle of Clorox, a laundry basket and inside the laundry basket a garbage bag,” Quanell said. “When he spoke to the mother, he told her he was cleaning up the apartment. And she didn’t understand why he would be cleaning up the apartment, but he went and bought an extra bottle of Clorox and came back.”

Vence currently is jailed on a $1 million bond. An attorney who might speak on his behalf was not immediately identified.