Woman missing after house fire found dead in SUV of man killed in shootout, police say
_fitted.png "A missing Texas woman was found dead inside the vehicle of a man killed in a shootout with Missouri troopers, officials say.")
The search for a missing Texas woman is over after her body was found in an SUV of a man killed in a shootout with Missouri cops, officials say.
Delisha Evans, of Princeton, Texas, was reported missing after authorities responded to a structure fire at her home and family said she was nowhere to be found, the Princeton Police Department said in a Sept. 6 news release. Princeton is a roughly 40-mile drive northeast from downtown Dallas.
Evans was quickly added to state and national missing persons databases while investigators tracked down leads, police said. Investigators, including the Texas Rangers, identified a suspect: Ryan Phillips.
Hours after the fire, authorities located a vehicle being driven by Phillips in St. Louis County, Missouri, thanks to nationwide alerts and through the “use of license plate readers,” police said.
Troopers tried to pull the vehicle over, but Phillips sped up, police said, kicking off a chase that ended when Phillips crashed. There was a shootout between Phillips and troopers, and he was hit by gunfire and died at the scene, according to police.
Troopers approached the wrecked vehicle and found Evans dead inside.
“On multiple occasions, he told her he would kill her,” Salomi Momoh, a friend of Evans’, told KSDK.
Evans, a mother to 13-year-old and 4-year-old girls, broke up with Phillips in August, Momoh told the station. But Phillips was at her home when she seemingly vanished, and when her eldest daughter asked him where her mother was, he said she was asleep upstairs.
Phillips took the teen to school in a rental car for two days, Momoh said, according to KSDK.
“We’ll never get a why,” Momoh told the station. “We’ll never get to a place of understanding.”
Officials have not announced a cause of death for Evans.
The investigation is ongoing, with the Princeton Police Department, Texas Rangers and Missouri Highway Patrol working in cooperation, police said.
This story was originally published September 8, 2024 at 5:04 PM with the headline "Woman missing after house fire found dead in SUV of man killed in shootout, police say."