Found Deceased AL - Paighton Houston, 29, left bar with 2 men, Birmingham, 20 Dec 2019 #2

[ItsSoInteresting]

[Back after a long break from that "case in Wisconsin". I needed to step away.]

I won't go into detail on my thoughts on this case as I believe I'd violate some rules -- I didn't see it until early this week which surprised me. I usually see cases like this much sooner which makes me wonder how aggressively this story was pushed out.

I will say that I agree with some other poster(s) on the previous thread who are questioning this specific aspect of the story (who she allegedly left with) and if PH ever made it to the bar. I'm sure LE is looking into this aspect of the story and pulling as much video as they can plus whatever they can get from the cell company, financial institutions, and possibly Google. Perhaps the delay in getting the story out was determining that some initial "facts" may have not been facts at all?

After reading her moms text, it does seem that her mother has questioned if she even made it to the bar

No one has been named a POI or suspect.
Co worker included, no screen shots or references to anyone not named or if it does not appear in MSM.

Whats MSM?

 

[Noharg]

After reading her moms text, it does seem that her mother has questioned if she even made it to the bar

Whats MSM?

Main Stream Media

 

[Jo in Calif]

Main stream media.

 

[Knox]

I’ve been a long time member, but haven’t posted in awhile and there seems to be a lot of new rules. Are we allowed to attach screenshots and the link to the coworkers Facebook page?

Refer back to page 1 in this thread, the social media rulz are posted there

 

[WildcatRunner]

I’ve been a long time member, but haven’t posted in awhile and there seems to be a lot of new rules. Are we allowed to attach screenshots and the link to the coworkers Facebook page?

No. That would be considered sleuthing someone other than the victim or suspect. Also, Facebook, unless belonging to the victim or suspect isn't necessarily accurate info. Only LE or mainstream media are to be considered reliable sources.

 

[WildcatRunner]

Let me just make a quick observation. I have looked at many images from inside the Tin Roof, and I'll just say this; two heavy set black men would have stood out like a sore thumb in that predominantly 'white bread' crowd. Even if they weren't on security camera, many people that were there will undoubtedly be able to confirm these two guys were there.

I, in general, would tend to agree with you; however it could be pretty dependant on the band that was playing the night she went missing. If the music genre was substantially different than the one when the photo was taken, it could draw a very different crowd.

 

[ItsSoInteresting]

Here are my thoughts:

1- coworker involved, but it may be indirectly...may be person/persons that the coworker knows and inadvertently came in contact with PH

2- someone she’s come in contact with through work

 

[Knox]

Moo... I keep feeling like PH’s co-worker/friend is covering for one or more people. Maybe she knew PH was wanting to do something she knew family wouldn’t approve of, so there was a safer story given to explain where she was. Then when PH didn’t return as expected, things went South fast, and the co-worker/friend could no longer maintain that story with all its holes in the light of all the attention/scrutiny it was receiving. I know that many times in my life when I was a young adult a girlfriend would tell me she was going one place with a person when the story was she was somewhere and with someone different. I never outed any friends who did this, and nothing bad ever happened to where attention was brought to the absence. I.e. none of my friends ever got busted for their white lies.

PH has her story of being saved from addiction publicly accessible online. It is odd to me she was allegedly going to a bar the day she disappeared. It is heavily frowned upon for anyone in recovery to go to bars even if alcohol wasn’t the drug of choice.

I can’t shake the feeling the friend is lying; I can’t decide if I feel that way because she was covering with a white lie for PH (which looked super suspicious later after PH didn’t return when she was expected to) or because she is covering something far more nefarious to hide circumstances behind PH’s disappearance.

It sure would be nice if we could get confirmation of any of the info this co-worker/friend has provided. IJS. Moo...

I could see the scenario you describe and agree it is plausible. However, in a criminal investigation when you are subject to being interviewed by LE, I think the average person would cave pretty quickly and tell the truth. Particularly if the only part in covering up a friend played was out of loyalty to the missing person.

If there is something more nefarious at play, meaning the hypothetical friend had a direct role in an intentional or accidental death. It could look like what we see playing out in Paighton's case, MOO.

I did receive a reply from Fred Davenport-WVTM13 News this morning:
Thank you for sending me your email with a list of great questions. I’m not sure when Birmingham police will be holding a press conference surrounding the disappearance of Paighton Houston. I will get my coworkers to go over the questions and then send an inquiry BPD.

Very kind of him to respond, let's hope he is successful in getting some of the questions answered. Good job on putting the list together WS'ers!

 

[Momof4RN]

Some media outlets do not like to print racial descriptions in their articles, but the original police statement said "two heavy set black men". If the person that relayed that info to police was telling the truth, I do not have any reason to believe that might have been mistaken.

According to WBRC, citing Sergeant Johnny Williams with the Birmingham Police Department, authorities did not see Houston on security footage leaving with two men from the Tin Roof Bar in Birmingham. They have not found anyone matching their descriptions, Williams said. It’s unclear whether police spotted Houston on security footage at all
A coworker reportedly said she went to the bar with Houston and friends on December 20 after they got off work. A friend later contacted Houston’s family and said she was last seen leaving the bar at around 10:45 p.m. with “two heavy set black males.” Houston’s family then called 911 and relayed the information.

“She was last seen leaving the location with two heavy set black males. It was reported that Paighton appeared to have left the location willingly with the two males,” Williams said last month, prior to authorities checking the bar’s security footage.
Paighton Houston: Police say no men seen on security footage with missing woman who texted ‘I feel in trouble’ after vanishing [Report]
Sergeant Johnny Williams with the Birmingham Police Department said investigators have reviewed surveillance video from a bar where Paighton Houston was last seen and have not found anyone matching the description of the two men she is believed to have left with.
Officers believe Houston willingly left the Tin Roof bar with two heavy set black men on Friday, December 20, based on information provided in the missing persons report.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wbrc.com/2019/12/27/reward-offered-missing-trussville-woman/?outputType=amp
Information from LE after viewing the surveillance is clearly not confirming the information provided by the one person who provided the sighting information in the report. IMO that could very well indicate LE was given misleading information. I tend to think some or all of the details provided about this sighting is not truthful. Either A) PH never made it to the bar or B) She did leave bar with 2 heavy set men but they were of a different race and thus not matching the description provided, which would mean intentional misleading to protect the 2 men she left with. JMHO

 

[bestill]

I could see the scenario you describe and agree it is plausible. However, in a criminal investigation when you are subject to being interviewed by LE, I think the average person would cave pretty quickly and tell the truth. Particularly if the only part in covering up a friend played was out of loyalty to the missing person.

If there is something more nefarious at play, meaning the hypothetical friend had a direct role in an intentional or accidental death. It could look like what we see playing out in Paighton's case, MOO.

I did receive a reply from Fred Davenport-WVTM13 News this morning:
Thank you for sending me your email with a list of great questions. I’m not sure when Birmingham police will be holding a press conference surrounding the disappearance of Paighton Houston. I will get my coworkers to go over the questions and then send an inquiry BPD.

Very kind of him to respond, let's hope he is successful in getting some of the questions answered. Good job on putting the list together WS'ers!

Thank you, Knox for putting them together and distributing them, hopefully we'll get some answers and we can start discussing them.

 

[sloane7777]

I'm not buying what the friend is selling, has a Susan Smith vibe to it , until someone else in the bar confirms (and they already should have ) .

 

[BlinkOfAnI]

I'm not one to jump on the humane trafficking train right off the bat and it may have nothing to do with this case. I had some cases years ago that were never charged as human trafficking but could have been if not for the circumstances. So just fodder for thought. It really struck me because a rash of young girls from my small country town were coming up on my radar. My office window had a view of a parking lot with the only payphone left in the inner city. Car loads would pull up filled with these girls and guys (pimps) you would have never believed they were with. These guys supplied the drugs and the girls supplied income after making phone calls to meet customers. Working at a CBCF I saw some of these girls get clean only to disappear later. Whether it be to teach other similar girls a lesson or they owed money, or turned CI they were no where to be found. It is an unforgiving world. But back to HT. Some of those girls were taken by their pimps and coerced or forced back on drugs against their will. Once hooked they were made to work at seedy dance clubs (I know of only 3 times this happened and all at the same place, but it is 3 times to many). Had it not been for a mother who persisted with calls begging for help because she knew that her daughter was being drugged, held and forced to dance and a PO who pushed TASC to help with a pointed raid I have no doubt her daughter would have died as would the other girls. These girls were lucky because they had warrants. Out area doesn't seek out warrants unless they are a danger or a judge orders and these girls were beyond being out and about at that point. I say all this because there are many ways human trafficking occurs even if it doesn't meet the statistical standards. Tha said I found this article which almost sounds similar to what I have witnessed. JMO FBI: 49 arrested in metro-Birmingham human trafficking operations ETA: the victims in the previous link were not between the statistical ages of HT victims.

 

[carbuff]

I posted this at the end of the first thread. Bringing it up again.

Could "I don't know these people and I feel in trouble" mean that she didn't know the people she was at the bar with, wished she could leave, and was feeling "in trouble" in the sense of wanting to fall off the wagon?

Like maybe she stepped outside to get away from the crowd but her friend was still into the partying thing? Or something along those lines?

It's just so much like Savanna Spurlock...only then we knew who she left with. Scared for PH.

 

[realanastasia]

Probably unrelated, but couldn’t help but think of PH and what might have happened to her: California man charged in abduction of Alabama woman

 

[Van Helsing]

About PH's frequent communication with parents, I don't think it is that unusual in these circumstances. Parents should set up conditions for adult children to continue living at home. If I had an adult child living at home with a history of addiction, I would try to keep him or her on a pretty short leash out of love and a desire to help him or her, and for self protection. I'm sure that loss of freedom would also be difficult for the adult child and could add to their struggles.

 

[Lusitana]

Was Paighton caught on CCTV on that bar, at all? Was she really there?

 

[Crimechick27]

I could see the scenario you describe and agree it is plausible. However, in a criminal investigation when you are subject to being interviewed by LE, I think the average person would cave pretty quickly and tell the truth. Particularly if the only part in covering up a friend played was out of loyalty to the missing person.

If there is something more nefarious at play, meaning the hypothetical friend had a direct role in an intentional or accidental death. It could look like what we see playing out in Paighton's case, MOO.

I did receive a reply from Fred Davenport-WVTM13 News this morning:
Thank you for sending me your email with a list of great questions. I’m not sure when Birmingham police will be holding a press conference surrounding the disappearance of Paighton Houston. I will get my coworkers to go over the questions and then send an inquiry BPD.

Very kind of him to respond, let's hope he is successful in getting some of the questions answered. Good job on putting the list together WS'ers!

I agree, and I SO hope we are wrong.

 

[sloane7777]

I posted this at the end of the first thread. Bringing it up again.

Could "I don't know these people and I feel in trouble" mean that she didn't know the people she was at the bar with, wished she could leave, and was feeling "in trouble" in the sense of wanting to fall off the wagon?

Like maybe she stepped outside to get away from the crowd but her friend was still into the partying thing? Or something along those lines?

It's just so much like Savanna Spurlock...only then we knew who she left with. Scared for PH.

or maybe she didn't send that text at all.

 

[sloane7777]

I posted this at the end of the first thread. Bringing it up again.

Could "I don't know these people and I feel in trouble" mean that she didn't know the people she was at the bar with, wished she could leave, and was feeling "in trouble" in the sense of wanting to fall off the wagon?

Like maybe she stepped outside to get away from the crowd but her friend was still into the partying thing? Or something along those lines?

It's just so much like Savanna Spurlock...only then we knew who she left with. Scared for PH.

or maybe she didn't send that text at all.

 

[Crimechick27]

I could see the scenario you describe and agree it is plausible. However, in a criminal investigation when you are subject to being interviewed by LE, I think the average person would cave pretty quickly and tell the truth. Particularly if the only part in covering up a friend played was out of loyalty to the missing person.

If there is something more nefarious at play, meaning the hypothetical friend had a direct role in an intentional or accidental death. It could look like what we see playing out in Paighton's case, MOO.

I did receive a reply from Fred Davenport-WVTM13 News this morning:
Thank you for sending me your email with a list of great questions. I’m not sure when Birmingham police will be holding a press conference surrounding the disappearance of Paighton Houston. I will get my coworkers to go over the questions and then send an inquiry BPD.

Very kind of him to respond, let's hope he is successful in getting some of the questions answered. Good job on putting the list together WS'ers!

I agree, and I SO hope we are wrong.