A body found in a shallow grave behind a dilapidated house in Hueytown, Alabama has been identified as a Trussville woman who went missing from a country music bar.
Paighton Houston, 29, was last seen on Dec. 20 at Tin Roof live music bar in the 2700 block of Seventh Avenue South in Birmingham’s Lakeview District. She arrived at the bar earlier that night with a co-worker.
After leaving the bar willingly with two men, Houston texted her co-worker to say she felt “in trouble.”
According to Houston’s mother, Paighton texted “if I call answer, I don’t know these people and I feel in trouble.”
On Friday morning, Trussville police received a tip that led them to the house on Chapel Hill Drive in Hueytown.
After sifting through a mound of trash in a “muddy, nasty” backyard, police discovered the shallow grave and unearthed Houston’s “intact” body. The body was positively identified as Houston.
Neighbors say an elderly man once lived in the house. His children moved him from the house to take care of him. The house is currently unoccupied.
Houston, whose smiling eyes touched the hearts of many, was honored by friends and volunteers who tied yellow ribbons on trees and telephone poles in Trussville on Saturday.
A GoFundMe account raised over $12,000 in donations to help pay Houston’s burial expenses.
