Last updated October 27, 2024; details of disappearance updated.
Details of Disappearance
Gibson was last seen in Austin, Texas with
Sidney Taylor. They had been friends since they attended Aldine High School together, but weren't romantically involved. They drove to Austin on April 1 for the Urban Music Festival and were at The Landing Strip, a club, late that night.
They were with a friend, Harvey "Hootie" Cyphers, and surveillance cameras showed the three entering the club together, and then leaving it together at closing time, 2:00 a.m. on April 2. The friend whom Taylor and Gibson was staying with spoke to Taylor on the phone at 3:00 a.m., and Taylor said he was with Cyphers. Taylor and Gibson never arrived back at their friend's residence and were never heard from again.
Two days later, Taylor's 2010 Dodge Charger with the Texas license plate number CBJ6089 was found abandoned in the 2400 block of Milam in downtown Houston, Texas, more than 160 miles from where the pair was last seen. Some of Gibson's personal belongings, including her purse, were inside the car. There was a pool of blood on the rear passenger-side floorboard, and plastic sheeting in the trunk was covered with dried blood and hair.
Police found inconsistencies in Cyphers's story about the events of that night. They searched his home in the 6800 block of Montana in Austin and found blood there; they think a violent crime occurred and someone made attempts to clean up. The search also uncovered an April 3 receipt with a list of "suspicious" items purchased from a Wal-Mart store.
Police determined through cell phone records that Cyphers, Gibson and Taylor were all at his home at 3:00 a.m. on April 2. At 7:30 a.m., the three phones left Austin together and traveled to Houston. Cyphers's phone was used to make multiple calls to Megabus, a commercial bus line with a pickup location within walking distance of where Taylor's car was found. Starting at 5:00 p.m., Cyphers's phone traveled without Gibson's and Taylor's phones along the same route Megabus takes between Houston and Austin.
In July of that year, Cyphers pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of firearms and was sent to prison. A photo of him is posted with this case summary. He has prior convictions for possession of a controlled substance in 1998 and unlawful possession of a firearm in 2001.
In March 2019, Cyphers was charged with tampering with evidence with intent to impair a human corpse; the indictment alleged he tried to alter or conceal "blood, biological material, a motor vehicle, a cell phone, text messages, a bath mat, a shower liner, shower curtains and bath towels", that he altered, destroyed or concealed other evidence knowing that "an investigation was pending and in progress", and that he tampered with two corpses after murder or an assault offense had been committed.
Eighteen months later, in September 2020, Cyphers was additionally charged with Gibson and Taylor's murders. In January 2023, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to tampering/fabricating physical evidence with the intent to impair involving a human corpse. The murder charges were dropped on the day of his sentencing.
Gibson was the single parent of an eight-year-old son at the time of her disappearance, and had a steady job in Houston. It's uncharacteristic of either her or Taylor to leave without warning or abandon their families. Foul play is suspected in their cases, which remain unsolved.
