HOUSTON — Searchers in southwest Houston went door-to-door Friday afternoon to spread the word about 20-year-old Shawtyeria Waites who’s been missing for more than two weeks.
Organizer Quanell X and volunteers handed out flyers to residents near the Meyerland area where Waites was last seen.
According to police, two friends dropped Waites off at The Villages at Meyerland Apartments on Chimney Rock near North Braeswood on the night of July 25.
After going to the store, they came back and she was gone. They told police they called her but her phone went straight to voicemail.
Quannel X said the women were invited there by a man they met at a strip club. Now they're worried that the man kidnapped Waites.
"It was never a plan to continue a party. We believe it was a plan to kidnap these young girls and only one went in and one has never been seen again," Quanell X said at a news conference last week. “He was spending large sums of money in the strip club and he was luring them with the money.”
Court documents confirm Waites was involved in the sex industry, something that Quanell X says could have played a part in her disappearance.
He said her family is devastated.
“We want to make sure that somebody fights for this young woman and let’s her know that she has value among us. And that we’re not just going to turn our back on her and leave her out here," Quannel X said.
Shawtyeria is 5’7” and approximately 120 lbs. and was last seen wearing a pink dress and pink sandals and a long, black curly wig, according to this flyer.
If you have any information that could lead to her whereabouts, you're asked to call HPD at 713-884-3131 or the HPD missing persons division at 832-394-1840.