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Investigators say missing 11-year-old girl is in danger
FOX 26 Reporter Damali Keith spoke with the missing girl's grandmother, who just wants to have her back as authorities believe she is in danger.
MISSOURI CITY, Texas - UPDATE: An Amber Alert for an 11-year-old girl last seen in Missouri City has been canceled.
According to FBI Houston, Imani Stephens was found alive around 9:30 p.m. Friday night in southeast Houston.
No other details have been released by authorities.
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An 11-year-old girl from Missouri City has been missing since early Friday morning. An Amber Alert has been issued for Imani Stephens.
Imani is said to be in danger after investigators say she was abducted from her Missouri City home by a man she met on social media.
The girl was reported to have last been seen around 1:45 a.m. in the 3700 block of Dry Creek Drive.
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"I’m fearful that I’ll never see her again, and I love my baby. She was the last piece to my son," says Imani’s grandmother Kimberly Wright.
Wright says she believes grief from the shooting death of her father is why her granddaughter, who lives with her, climbed out her window and left home with a man.
Missouri City Police Department says Imani left with an unidentified Hispanic male in a newer-model silver Dodge pickup truck.
In the first Amber Alert bulletins, authorities named Daniel Diaz and later Daniel Leonard Diaz as the person of interest. MCPD say they were identified through photos from the family of the missing juvenile.
"Contact has been made with both Persons of Interest, and they have been cooperative with the investigation," MCPD said in a statement.
Neither Diaz is a person of interest at this time.
"It was determined that Investigators were provided with misinformation from multiple parties related to this case," MCPD said. "This investigation is ongoing and multiple leads are being followed up at this time to determine the whereabouts of Imani."
The FBI and the Houston Police Department are assisting MCPD with the investigation.
11-year-old Imani Stephens (Source: Texas Department of Public Safety)
Now the bulletin, updated at 4 p.m., just shows Imani's picture and her description.
She was wearing glasses, a black and gray shirt with black striped red letters, multicolored sweatpants and Crocks. She is 5’2" tall, 111 pounds, with black hair, brown eyes and scars on both of her wrists.
"She’s my love. I lost her dad. He was my only child. I want my baby back," says Imani’s grandmother.
Wright says she believes Imani is with the same man the 11-year-old left home with two Saturdays ago. Someone the little girl met online.
"Now we are back in this situation again. I think he has really gotten in her head because of everything she’s gone through," the grieving grandmother says.
Around 2:00 a.m., Wright says her granddaughter opened the front door and the alarm went off. She told her grandmother she was just making sure the door was locked. Less than an hour later a security guard, keeping an eye on the homes under construction in the area knocked on Wright’s door telling her he saw a little girl, coming from the backyard and a man putting her in his truck and driving away.
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"Imani, if you’re listening, please baby just come home. We can work through this," pleads Imani’s grandmother.
Imani is believed to have left with a man who was driving a newer model gray pickup truck.
"I don’t have anything else. I just have her. I want her back."
Wright says earlier this month she got her granddaughter back by tracking her phone but after that incident she took the 11-year-old’s phone away, so she doesn’t have a way to track her this time.
If you know where she is you’re asked to call Missouri City Police at (281)403-8700 or Fort Bend County Crime Stoppers at (281) 342-8477.