Without a trace: Age-progressed image shows what Ali Lowitzer might look like 14 years after she vanished from Spring
On April 26, 2010, Ali got off her school bus in Spring and simply vanished. Fourteen years later, her family still holds out hope that she's alive.
The family of a 16-year-old who vanished from Spring without a trace 14 years ago hopes a new age-progressed image might help solve the mystery that haunts them.
If she's still alive, Ali Lowitzer will turn 30 years old on Saturday, Feb, 3, 2024.
“I’ve learned to put things in a box in my head and sometimes I choose not to open those boxes everyday," Ali's mother Jo Ann Lowitzer said. "But when on certain days, her birthday is tomorrow, all those boxes get opened.”
When Ali disappeared on April 26, 2010, she had braces, pierced ears and a pierced nose. Her hair was dyed dark red.
Forensic artist Collin McNally has done many age progression images of Ali through the years. The latest one is what she might look like at 30.
"The things I dream about would be what she was like today,” Jo Ann told us in 2019.
She's made it her mission to find her daughter and to raise awareness of all missing children. On Saturday, Jo Ann will join other families for a Missing Persons Day ceremony in Rice Village.
“I don’t want anybody to forget that she’s still missing," Jo Ann said. “What that’s saying? All wounds heal with time? Yeah, this wound won’t heal, until we find her.”
Chapter 1 'Mom's worst nightmare'
Surveillance video showed Ali getting off the school bus around 3 p.m. on the day she went missing. It was just 30 feet from her home, near Low Ridge Road and Knotty Post Lane.
Her mom said the Spring High School student planned to walk to the restaurant where she worked on Cypresswood Drive to pick up her paycheck. It was less than a quarter mile away from the bus stop. She never showed up.
The Laura Recovery Center got involved and Texas Equusearch volunteers combed the area but neither group found any clues.
Law enforcement initially believed the teen was a runaway. The Lowitzers pointed out that Ali didn't have her cellphone charger, clothes, makeup, money or jewelry -- all items that were important to her.
She was an avid texter, phone records showed, but her cellphone last pinged near the bus stop before it went dead.
“We know that she wouldn’t go absolutely dark and not contact anybody,” Jo Ann told us in 2019 when a book called "Moms of the Missing" was released. "I’m like gosh, why hasn’t anything else happened? Where could she be? Is she still alive? It’s truly a mom’s worst nightmare."
Chapter 2 'You wanna hope that she is alive'
Desperate for answers, Ali's parents also hired a private investigator in 2014.
Amber Cammack said she uncovered evidence that Ali might have been trafficked to Columbus, Ohio and was being kept at a brothel.
"We know this girl exists that resembles Ali," Cammack told us. "We know that she is being prostituted out, but we cannot say that it is our Ali until we get our hands on her."
Columbus police raided the house in January 2014 but they didn't find Ali.
Back in Spring, Jo Ann didn't know whether to be devastated or relieved.
"You wanna hope that she is alive because she's your child," Lowitzer told us after the raid. "But for four years, thinking of what she could be going through, you kinda hope that she's not alive anymore."
In 2019, investigators with the Harris County Sheriff's Office told us that Ali's case remained a top priority. It had been moved from the missing persons division to homicide and a new cold case deputy was assigned to it. Still, nothing.
“I feel like we’re no closer to finding her now than that very first day," Jo Ann said.
Chapter 3 Where is Ali Lowitzer?
Jo Ann still holds out hope that her daughter, who loved art, animals and music, might come home one day so she never changed Ali's bedroom.
NCMEC isn't giving up either. They say Ali's given name is Alexandria Joy, but she may also go by the nicknames Alex or AJ.
If you have any information about Ali or her disappearance, please contact NCMEC at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) or the Harris County Sheriff's Office (Texas) at 1-713-221-6000.