Orange, Texas — July 4, 2002
Dannarriah Finley was only 4 years old.
She should have been safest in her own bed.
Instead, during the overnight hours of July 4, 2002, someone entered her family’s home on North Gourth Street in Orange, Texas, and abducted her while she slept.
Other children were inside the home.
No one heard the intruder.
No one realized Dannarriah had been taken until it was too late.
A Massive Search
When her mother discovered Dannarriah was missing, panic spread quickly.
Family and friends began searching immediately before contacting law enforcement around 10 a.m.
Soon, the entire community joined the effort.
Volunteers searched through nearly 100-degree temperatures across areas south of Interstate 10 between Simmons Drive and Green Avenue.
Search teams looked beneath homes, inside sheds, through thick brush, drainage pipes, and wooded areas.
Officers searched on foot, horseback, ATVs, boats, and aircraft.
Then-Mayor Brown Claybar joined the search, while EquuSearch coordinated volunteers determined to bring Dannarriah home.
Despite the massive effort, no trace of the little girl was found.
A Heartbreaking Discovery
Four days later, pipeline workers on Pleasure Island in Port Arthur made the discovery everyone had feared.
Dannarriah’s body had been pulled onto land by an alligator.
Investigators determined she had already been murdered before her body was left there.
She was found just weeks before what would have been her fifth birthday.
Investigators collected DNA evidence and submitted it for testing.
No match was ever identified.
More Than Two Decades Without Justice
More than 20 years later, no one has been arrested for Dannarriah’s murder.
The home she was taken from no longer stands.
It was destroyed during Hurricane Rita in 2005.
But Orange police have never forgotten the little girl whose life was stolen.
The pink shorts and colorful flowered shirt Dannarriah was wearing when she was found remain framed inside the Orange Police Department as a reminder that a child was taken from her bed and never returned to her family.
Her loved ones continue waiting for answers.
Anyone with information regarding the murder of Dannarriah Finley is urged to contact the Orange Police Department at 409-883-1026.
© The Vivid Faces of the Vanished