HOUSTON – Texas EquuSearch has joined the search for a missing 23-year-old woman who is eight months pregnant and considered at high risk.
A $5,000 reward is being offered by Texas EquuSearch for any information on Ashanti Allen’s whereabouts.
According to search officials, Allen was last seen April 8 leaving her apartment complex in near 8700 Main Street in Houston. She was reported missing on April 10 and her disappearance is now the focus of an ongoing missing persons investigation.
Allen’s mother, Trisa Gaines Colbert, said she received a strange text from her daughter’s cellphone on April 10, reading, “I’m leaving and never coming back.”
“That was suspicious to me, so when I saw that, I instantly went up to her apartment, knocked and no one was there,” Colbert stated. “I looked in the garage, the vehicle was also missing.”
EquuSearch says Allen’s case is especially concerning because she is in the late stages of a high-risk pregnancy, raising urgency for search efforts.
Colbert said she got access to her daughter’s home and saw her clothes and the baby’s clothes were still inside.
Investigators say it is unclear what Allen was wearing when she disappeared. Authorities are also looking for her vehicle, described as a white Lincoln MKX SUV.
Colbert stated Allen has been using a wheelchair to get as she was struggling to walk due to her recently passing out while pregnant.
“She was barely getting around,” Colbert said.
Colbert said Allen’s apartment complex’s surveillance video shows Allen and another person leaving the complex before her disappearance.
“I just feel hopeless and devastated,” Colbert said.
Anyone with information about Allen’s whereabouts or details related to her disappearance is urged to contact the Houston Police Department at 832-394-1840 or Texas EquuSearch at 281-309-9500.
Officials say the search remains active as crews and volunteers work to locate her safely.