TheColdCases.com Podcast | True Crime & Cold Cases

Maryah Hope Allen Walked Out of Jail and Vanished

Dustin Terry | True Crime Journalist Season 1 Episode 58

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0:00 | 6:39

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Episode Description:

In April 2018, 17-year-old Maryah Hope Allen walked out of a Galveston County jail cell in Texas — and vanished. Today, her grandmother Phyllis Jones, the woman who raised her, is breaking her silence. She tells us about the older man who groomed Maryah starting at 16, the drug addiction that followed, a debt to a dealer who held the title to her car, and a phone call from jail that would be the last time they ever spoke. Seven years later, Maryah has never been found. If you know anything, please come forward.

If you have information on Maryah Hope Allen, contact the Galveston County Sheriff's Office at (409) 766-2300.

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SPEAKER_01

Okay, Phyllis, we're talking about Mariah Hope Allen. Um and she is what, Tia?

SPEAKER_00

My granddaughter.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Okay. She was seventeen when she was last seen in uh Rosoria County, Texas, and she disappeared on April fifth, twenty thousand eighteen. First of all, can can you tell me um what type of person she was?

SPEAKER_00

Well, she was always a little angel until that guy got her hooked on whatever he got her hooked on.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Now yeah, and she was a a very beautiful girl and she disappeared. She disappeared after she went to jail. She uh she got in an argument with her boyfriend, and then the grandma of the of the boyfriend called the cops or something.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and had them both arrested and they let her out, but they they didn't let him out, but I guess it's because he had some prior warrants or something. I'm not sure of all of his details, but I know that she called me and said she needed eight hundred dollars to let him out. I don't know how much of that detail you know, and I told her I was not giving her$800, but I was coming to get her, and I'd be there because she was in Galveston and I'm in Brazoria, and I said, I will be there. She goes, Well, you need to bring$800. I said, I'm not bringing$800, and I'm not getting that guy out of jail. I am not doing it. I'm coming and getting my granddaughter and I'm bringing her home. She goes, If you're not bringing me$800, don't even bother coming. And then that's the last I heard from her. That's the last I've seen. That's the last I know. I do know that I found out later down the road that she owed her and that guy owed$500 to a drug dealer, and the guy had the title to her car, and that the$300, I don't know what that was for, because the guy wasn't getting out of jail for two weeks anyway.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Because of whatever warrants he had. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

Do they know who the drug dealer was?

SPEAKER_00

Well, obviously they don't because they didn't ever tell me that. I know supposedly, now this is just what I was told by detective the detective is supposedly there was Alex, I don't know if I'm gonna say his last name right, McConey, that she was in his car, but she was calling from his phone, and I don't know, her phone was obviously still at the grandmother's with her stuff in her car. And that's all I could find out about that, and then the next thing you know, we didn't hear from her anymore. You couldn't call when you called, nobody answered the phone. It was just crazy. And then the I asked the guy when he finally got out of jail for her car, her stuff, and her phone, and he goes, No, and I said, if you do not give me her car, all of her stuff and her phone, I'm gonna have you arrested in the morning for being a pedophile.

SPEAKER_01

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00

So this guy wasn't even uh this guy wasn't He was 23 and she was 16 when he got her strung out on drugs.

SPEAKER_01

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. But the detective has cleared him of any wrongdoing and her missing.

SPEAKER_01

So Well he he has to know who who did something, you know. If you know what I'm saying, like they should at least I I think they should at least question him as though he knows something, you know.

SPEAKER_00

They have. Five times. Even had surveillance on him. Wow. And that's when they said that he had nothing to do with it. He said the only wrongdoing I've ever had to do with Mariah is he said I'm the one that introduced her to drugs.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. What kind of drugs were they doing? Heroin, fentanyl?

SPEAKER_00

I don't know. Whatever they were doing, they were smoking it. I don't know anything about drugs.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I've never done them.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, uh, I understand. Um so there have you had any tips or anything from other people besides the tips you already told me?

SPEAKER_00

Uh the only thing I've gotten is the detective says she's probably dead.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I'm sorry.

unknown

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I know. And I said, I'll believe that when you bring me a body. Yeah. Well, they've had cadavers out looking for her and they have never found but they've had it out in Hitchcock because the I guess the detective heard that he was in Hitchcock at one time or other after the jail incident. You know, I'm not getting much information anymore. Yeah, and I used to get a lot of information.

SPEAKER_01

They should follow up with you at least a c every couple months or something, you'd think.

SPEAKER_00

Well, that's what I would have thought. And I called him last month and he goes, Oh, I've been having surgery and I'm in recuperation. Well, if you're in recuperation, that doesn't keep you from running a computer.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But then uh that's just a grandmother that's you know.

SPEAKER_01

You're in pain. You're in pain.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And I know it's gonna be eight years the fourth.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Since I laid eyes on her when she walked off my porch.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Did you raise them?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Wow. Her mom said, give her to her. And then of course when her mom wanted money or wanted to use her, she'd come back and I didn't have any legal, you know, legal, legal papers to her. But you So, you know, what could I do?

SPEAKER_01

You did the best you could in a tough situation, you know.

SPEAKER_00

I did.

SPEAKER_01

But I'm I'm gonna post an article about this and um get it some traction and uh I'm gonna call you back right after I hang up.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.