Crime & Safety

Mom Of Missing Woman Pleads: 'Help Us Bring Brittany Home'

Police have charged a 37-year-old man with murder of Brittany Burfield, who disappeared on June 25.

HOUSTON, TX – The mother of a 37-year-old woman who vanished on June 25, expressed her heartfelt thanks to investigators and the Houston community for helping search for her missing daughter. Now, she just wants help to bring her daughter back home.

“We really need to bring her home,” said Tricia Valentine, the mother of Brittany Burfield. “Help us bring Brittany home.”

On Thursday afternoon, Houston Police homicide investigators briefed media members on the investigation into Burfield’s disappearance.

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It’s been nearly a month since she vanished after visiting with family members in Sugar Land that Monday afternoon. Since that day, law enforcement agencies and volunteers with Texas EquuSearch have searched unsuccessfully for the missing woman.

Police didn’t get a break in the case until July 12, when they arrested an acquaintance of Burfield’s, later identified as Alex Jerome Haggerty, on an unrelated charge of choking a woman.

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Haggerty was living in a tent on his parents' property in Houston’s Third Ward when he was arrested. Police have found some of Burfield’s clothes and belongings on the yard near Haggerty's tent.

During the investigation, police said they recovered phone records that showed Haggerty used Burfield’s cellphone to call his probation officer, and found witnesses who’d seen him driving her car days after her disappearance.

Police found her car in Westchase, and a search by cadaver dogs indicated that a dead body had been in the car, police said. Although a body has not been found, on July 16, police charged Haggerty with Burfield’s murder.

He is being held in the Harris County Jail without bond.

“Brittany was a sweet, loving and fun person,” Valentine said. "Everybody who met Brittany loved her. She did not deserve what happened to her. We just want her found.”

Anyone with information about her whereabouts is asked to call the Houston Police Department at 832-394-1818 or EquuSearch at 281-309-9500.

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Image: HPD

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