The case of a young woman who went missing last week has been elevated to critical status after a man allegedly killed himself when police tried to question him a second time about her disappearance.
The Victoria Police Department first learned that 20-year-old Amanda Stevenson had gone missing when her mother filed a report on November 21. Stevenson was last seen on November 19 near Salem Road in Victoria.
Early in the investigation, police interviewed a ride-share driver who had previously given Stevenson rides. When officers pulled him over during a traffic stop on November 22 to conduct a second interview, the man allegedly killed himself. The Texas Rangers are currently heading the probe into the incident.
The man’s vehicle was impounded, and his spouse has reportedly been cooperating with local authorities, which led to officers and K-9s combing several areas he was known to frequent. Drones were also deployed, yet the search has yielded no results.
Stevenson’s cell phone was recovered early on but has not been successfully unlocked by investigators.
Police departments within a 200-mile radius of the small South Texas town have been alerted about her disappearance. Her family is growing increasingly concerned, according to comments left on a Victoria Polie Department social media post.
Anyone with information about the young woman’s disappearance should contact Victoria Crime Stoppers at 361-572-4200. Tips are anonymous.
Stevenson is 5-foot-1, weighs 125 pounds, and has black hair and brown eyes. She was last spotted wearing gray sweats and black shoes.
Texas currently has the second-highest number of open missing person cases in the United States, according to data from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons database. It has 2,687, while California leads with 3,404. Texas has just 8.48 per 100,000, just above the national average of 6.5.
In Dallas, a total of 162 kidnappings have been reported to the police this year, according to the City’s crime analytics dashboard. The vast majority of victims have been women, and the median age currently sits at 27 years old.
The number of abductions has increased year over year by 17.4%, making it one of several types of crime — including murder and motor vehicle theft — seeing spikes citywide in 2023.
The Dallas Police Department has launched a campaign to fight violent crime; however, it continues to struggle amid an officer shortage. The department has fewer than 3,200 officers in its ranks at present, far less than the 4,000 recommended by a City analysis.
Soaring crime rates in Downtown Dallas attest to the absence of police resources, especially in comparison to Fort Worth’s downtown area, which sees considerably less crime and is reportedly patrolled by a special police unit and private security officers, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
