Maleah Davis' death is officially being ruled a homicide. The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences said today the four-year-old was killed by homicidal violence although major details were not released. Davis' body was discovered a month ago in Arkansas. Her stepfather is under arrest on tampering with evidence charges.
During a news conference, Police Chief Art Acevedo said, "at the end of the day, our hope and prayers are that we'll charge the person or persons responsible for her death with the appropriate charges."
Acevedo said, "we're hopeful that in the next few weeks we'll be able to get this further along and actually be able to give an update with our colleagues at the Harris County DA's office on the final charges and who the suspects will be and what the charges will be."
Acevedo also said he realizes the public is frustrated with the pace of the case, saying "you look at social media and people want people arrested. They don't understand that that's not the way that investigations go." The chief went on to say, "we don't look at which way the winds blowing. We don't look at public sentiment. What we look at is what the evidence is and we pursue the case to where the evidence takes us."