Pennysmom1
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The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.
www.namus.gov
- Missing Since 08/01/2014
- Missing From Houston, Texas
- Classification Endangered Missing
- Sex Female
- Race Asian
- Age 60 years old
- Height and Weight 5'3, 170 pounds
- Clothing/Jewelry Description A gold chain necklace with a white ivory pendant of the Buddha.
- Distinguishing Characteristics Asian female. Black hair, brown eyes.
Details of Disappearance
Sayphanya was last seen in Houston, Texas sometime in 2014. The exact date of her disappearance is unclear as police did not begin investigating until 2017, by which time no one in her family had heard from her in years.In August 2024, Sayphanya's son, 37-year-old Donny Soundara Daosavanh, who lived with her at the time of her disappearance in the 800 block of Oak Street, was arrested and charged with her murder. Investigators believe he killed her on August 1, 2014, and he reportedly confessed the crime to several people. He stated he beat his mother to death with a hammer, kept her body in the bathtub for a week, then wrapped it in a comforter and buried it. He has a criminal record; in 2010 he was convicted of assaulting a family member.(bbm)
A photo of Daosavanh is posted with this case summary. He is awaiting trial. Sayphanya's body has not been found, but foul play is suspected in her case due to the circumstances involved.(bbm)
Aug 5, 2024

Cold case arrest: Houston man charged with murder in mom's 2014 death
According to court documents, Donny Daosavanh, 37, killed his 60-year-old mother with a blunt object 10 years ago. Her body was never found.

<<“So this is an unusual case in that we don’t have a body and so we’re hoping that by filing this case and getting the facts of this case out there, that maybe someone out there knows something," prosecutor Samantha Knecht told us.
Daosavanh confessed to several people that he killed his mother, according to Knecht, but she admitted that trying the case without a body would be a challenge.>>

Houston police arrest son on murder charge a decade after mom's disappearance
Police have yet to locate the mother's body but said her son had openly admitted to killing her in the years since she vanished.

Houston man charged with murder of mother after 2017 confession
HOUSTON, Texas — Charges have been filed against a suspect arrested in the death of a woman believed to have occurred in August 2014, but not reported to Houston police
<<In October 2017, the Houston Police Department (HPD) Homicide Division received information that Daosavanh had confessed to a relative that he had killed his mother, Ms. Sayphanya, who had been living with him and was financially dependent on him. Daosavanh was soon arrested on an unrelated warrant and also confessed to homicide investigators his role in the beating death of his mother with an object. He said he later disposed of her body by burying her at an unknown location, but he declined to provide the location of her remains because he did not want to be reincarcerated.
Extensive efforts were made to locate the body of Ms. Sayphanya or to find any physical evidence of the homicide, but all efforts proved unsuccessful, according to the HPD Homicide Division.>>