Case Details
- Photo URLs:
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- Missing Since:
- Missing Since 10/28/2014
- Missing From:
- Missing From Fayetteville, North Carolina
- Classification:
- Classification Endangered Missing
- Gender:
- Female
- Race:
- Race Black
- Date of Birth:
- Age:
- Age 44 years old
- Height and Weight:
- Height and Weight 5’0 – 5’1, 160 pounds
- Clothing/Jewelry Description:
- Clothing/Jewelry Description A blue t-shirt, gray sweatpants and flip-flops.
- Distinguishing Characteristics:
- Distinguishing Characteristics African-American female. Blonde hair, brown eyes. Valentine’s natural hair color is black; it was dyed blonde at the time of her disappearance. Her ears are pierced and she sometimes wears contact lenses. Her nickname is Mimi. She has a tattoo of a flower on her upper arm and a tattoo of a heart on her breast. A photo of the flower tattoo is posted with this case summary.
- Details of Disappearance:
- Valentine disappeared from Fayetteville, North Carolina on October 28, 2014. Her last known contact was a strange phone call with her mother at 10:30 pm that night. She was a church secretary and her absence from Bible study is what alerted people she was missing.
Police quickly focused on Reginald McDowell, her ex-boyfriend and the father of one of her children. They had a violent past; McDowell had even been convicted of kidnapping Valentine and another person in 1999. Although they’d gotten back together after his release from prison, they broke up shortly before her disappearance. A neighbor saw McDowell at Valentine’s apartment building around 5:30 pm on the day she vanished. Security footage shows him running toward her building.
McDowell initially helped with the investigation but then stopped cooperating, left town, and cut contact with his family. Valentine’s pastor said she’d been scared before she disappeared, often asking for a ride home and taking different routes to avoid someone.
In 2018, McDowell was charged with kidnapping and murdering Valentine, even though her body has never been found. He’s still missing, possibly in New York, but police plan to arrest and bring him to Fayetteville for trial when they find him. Because of all the suspicious circumstances, police believe someone harmed Valentine.
- Agency:
- Fayetteville Police Departmant 910-549-7326
- Source Links:
This person was missing Missing Since 10/28/2014