Welcome to Mysteries of the Missing, a podcast and blog about missing person's cases. You can find my podcast, my blog, and my social media pages on my Linktree at: https://linktr.ee/MysteriesoftheMissing.
Keep in mind that I am only reporting the events of what have happened, per my research through various media outlets. I’m not trained in any way in true crime. Instead, I'm a published author who loves to blog. Also, I’m solely a human being that’s trying to do my part to get the message of the story of DeUndrea Ford out there so that one day, hopefully, she may be found, and her case may be solved. Join me as I dive into the last day that people saw DeUndrea and what happened after she was last seen.
This is a bonus episode with an update about DeUndrea Ford's case, so it won't be as long as my previous episodes. DeUndrea is a missing and presumed murdered African American woman from Houston, Texas. I first reported on DeUndrea on October 30, 2023, one month after she was reported missing by her family. DeUndrea worked at Bikini Sports Bar & Grill in Houston, Texas, and the night that she disappeared, she was seen on camera getting into a white van of an unknown African American male.
Yoland Washington and DeUndrea Ford
As of January, 2024, a man named Yoland J. Washington, age 51, was arrested in connection to DeUndrea's disappearance. Unfortunately, Yoland is in Dallas, so he is waiting extradition to Houston. What is his connection to DeUndrea? Well, Yoland is the owner of the white van that DeUndrea was last seen getting into.
On September 22, 2023, DeUndrea was seen getting into Yoland's van and getting into the back seat with him at around 1:30 a.m. Shortly afterward, Yoland was seen on cameras at the sports bar as he climbed out of the back of his van into the driver's seat and drove away from Bikini's. DeUndrea did not exit the van or climb into the passenger seat next to him.
Not only that, after DeUndrea went missing, her phone was turned off and found in Washington's possession. Authorities found blood and DeUndrea's bloody clothes in the back of the van, but no DeUndrea. When investigators used luminol to identify the presence of blood, they were able to positively confirm that it was there. In fact, blood spots were all over the van, "from the back back doors to the driver's seat." Yoland was also wearing a shirt that had DNA (blood spots) mixed with his and DeUndrea's.
In addition, this man has a history of violence against sex workers.
Yoland Washington claims that he dropped DeUndrea off at another location, so that's why she wasn't seen leaving his van.
In October of 2023, Washington was arrested in connection to the disappearance and possible murder of DeUndrea Ford. He waits in Dallas County Jail while awaiting extradition to Houston.
As of now, there has been no sign of DeUndrea, but the Houston Police Department is assuming she is not with us anymore. I pray that this man either confesses to what he did with DeUndrea and where she is, or that somehow, investigators can discover her whereabouts.
On May 18, 2023, DeUndrea was a witness to a murder that took place on the people in the car she was sleeping in. The car and its occupants (DeUndrea included) were sitting at a Houston apartment complex when the driver, Otis Parker, was shot and killed. DeUndrea left the shooting unscathed and uninjured. The shooters were attempting to rob DeUndrea, Otis, and the other occupants in the car of $1,500 they made while on a trip to Louisiana, and are identified as Jamal Brown, 21, and his accomplices as Mariah Green, 23, and Quitiana Taylor, 21, along with Jarrell Wheeler, 22. In July 2023, one of the shooters, Jamal Brown, was shot by police as he produced a pistol when they were attempting to arrest him for the shooting incident. The rest of the assailants are currently behind bars.
It is unknown by authorities if DeUndrea's disappearance and potential murder are affiliated with this shooting that took place several months before or not.
Ford is described by police as a Black woman who stands about 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighs about 170 lbs. She has brown eyes and black hair.
Anyone with information regarding this case is urged to contact the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600, speak anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS, or contact me at mysteriesofthemissing2023@gmail.com.
I hope that the next time I report on DeUndrea, she will have been found.
This has been another episode of Mysteries of the Missing. Until Next time, stay safe...
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