HOUSTON — A newly obtained search warrant sheds more light on what investigators say happened during and after the search for Maliyah Bass.
The 2-year-old girl was found dead in Brays Bayou in August after her mother reported her missing.
Police say Sahara Ervin, 20, claimed she left the toddler alone for a few minutes in the Sunset Crossing apartment’s playground a day before a jogger made the heartbreaking discovery in the bayou. Since then, Ervin and her boyfriend, 21-year-old Travion Thompson, have been charged in connection with Maliyah's death.
According to the warrant, on the day Ervin called 911 (Aug. 22, 2020) from her neighbor's phone to report Maliyah missing, neither she nor Thompson was "engaged in searching for" Maliyah.
The warrant also revealed that the child had not been on the playground that morning and Ervin and Thompson were not seen searching for the child.
When a trained tracking dog showed up to search for the girl, both Ervin and Thompson were opposed to using it, the warrant says. The dog tracked toward Wilcrest and Ervin and Thompson followed. The warrant reveals that in bodycam video, the couple wanted to bring the dogs back to the apartment.
Ervin repeatedly told officers at the scene that she didn't want to use the dog, the warrant says.
During interviews, according to the warrant, the couple made several inconsistent statements about what they were doing when the girl went missing. Thompson said he was playing video games and sweeping while Ervin said she was alone with Thompson and he was sleeping, the warrant says.
Maliyah was last seen alive on video about 57 hours before she was reported missing, according to the warrant. After that, Ervin and Thomson were seen on video going to and from stores and also lingering outside of the apartment complex, the warrant says.
According to the warrant, Thompson was seen with a trash can standing near a dumpster and a storm drain on Aug. 21. He later told investigators the child's body was in the trash can and he couldn't bring himself to disposing of the body, the document revealed.
Thompson told investigators that he and Ervin took the girl's body to another storm drain and dumped her at about 11 p.m. Investigators said there was heavy rain on the afternoon after the child was reported missing and the storm drain in which Thompson said they dumped her body flowed underneath Wilcrest and then into a drainage ditch that feeds into Brays Bayou. The bayou then flows eastward in the direction of where Maliyah's body was found on Aug. 23.
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The girl was found about 25 hours after she was reported missing. The medical examiner said the girl had been dead for about two days before she was found. Authorities said they believe she was beaten to death.