HARRIS COUNTY, Texas The search for a 26-year-old pregnant woman reportedly last seen Thursday resumed Wednesday in northern Harris County, but her family does not expect to find her alive.
According to officials, Melissa Sowders was last seen by her boyfriend, Jason Sanford, who said that she had dropped him off for work at 6:15 a.m. Sowders was in their white Honda Accord, which deputies found Friday night on Interstate 45 near Richey Road.
Texas Equusearch has been searching the area along Cypress Creek since Saturday. Texas Equusearch would only say they have good reason to be at the location near Interstate 45.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office brought in their dive team later in the day to search the area.
Sanford said Sowders was supposed to go meet her ex-husband and their youngest daughter at the McDonald s on FM 1960 near Kuykendahl Road.
She told me, 'okay, I'm here. He's here, I m going to get off the phone.' Every time she had to meet with him to see her baby, she was always worried about it. He scares her, said Jason Sanford, Sowder's boyfriend.
Detectives confirm the ex-husband has been questioned but they have not named him a suspect.
Meanwhile, family members are holding onto memories. They shared surveillance video from their business of Sowders hours before her disappearance. It shows Sowders and her boyfriend Jason Sanford visiting his godparents for Christmas.
I did tell her Christmas Day, 'you're working your way into my heart.', said Crickitt Kreger, Sowder's boyfriend's godmother.
The couple purchased Kreger a neck pillow.
I know it seems silly, but I don't even want to use it. It's what her and Jason got me for Christmas, Kreger said.
Search crews have been all over Cypress Creek. They're putting underwater sonar cameras in a specific spot, hoping to find something.
If she is hurt somewhere, call somebody, drop her off at a hospital, anything, said Kreger.
The water is cold, she's in there. It's not a proper place, said Michelle Bierman, Sowder's cousin.
If you can help find her, contact the Harris County Sheriff s Office Homicide Unit at (713) 967-5810 or Crime Stoppers at (713) 222-TIPS.
