MS MS - Katherine Lowery, 27, Olive Branch, 2 February 1999

http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2007/09/21/local_news_updates/20local_09-21-07.txt

Prosecutors try to tie Rawlins inmate to missing woman

Investigators found a skull Saturday, which might reopen the case against Steven DeLoge.

CHEYENNE - For years now, prosecutors have considered Steven DeLoge a suspect in the disappearance of his girlfriend.

He moved to Cheyenne shortly after Katherine Lowery went missing in Mississippi back in 1999.

After months of investigation, the case against DeLoge grew cold.

But DeLoge, whom investigators have also identified as Sheldon Van Houte, was convicted in 2000 of repeatedly raping Lowery's 8-year-old daughter.

He is now serving six consecutive life sentences in the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins.

On Saturday, Mississippi investigators say they discovered something that may have restarted their stalled investigation. A skull was found in a wooded area just miles away from where Lowery used to live.

Detectives scoured the wooded area when Lowery first went missing, but nothing ever turned up. Now, they are working to verify whether the skull is that of the 27-year-old woman, who was last seen near the place where the skull was recovered.

Investigators at the time said Lowery hadn't been seen or heard from since February 1999 and have since classified her disappearance as a possible homicide.

much more at link

Katherine is possibly the missing person referenced by the Sheriff in the video that accompanies this FOX13 article from January 2014. She is the only female listed from DeSoto County on NamUs presently. http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/story/24604503/human-skull-found-in-north-mississippi
Thread for the unidentified person found January 2014 - http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?258931-Sardis-UnkRaceFem-UP-12953-15-29-Gold-Necklace-Jan-2014

https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/9672/
Status Missing
First name Katherine
Middle name Marie
Last name Lowery
Nickname/Alias Kathy
Date last seen February 02, 1999 00:00
Date entered 03/10/2011
Age last seen 26 to 26 years old
Age now 42 years old
Race White
Ethnicity
Sex Female
Height (inches) 62.0
Weight (pounds) 120.0 to 130.0
Dental Status: Dental information / charting is available and entered
DNA Status: Sample submitted - Tests complete
Fingerprint Information Status: Fingerprint information is currently not available

Katherine has been missing for 16 years.

After she was born in 1962, Elizabeth Eisel was put up for adoption. When her adoptive mother and brother were killed in a car accident in 1981, Elizabeth became interested in tracking down her biological family. She soon located her birth mother’s son, Steven DeLoge, and eventually moved to Bellevue, Washington.

Sometime in September of 1985, Elizabeth disappeared, leaving all her personal belongings behind. Because she was estranged from the rest of her adoptive family, she was not actually reported missing until 1988.It turned out that even though Elizabeth and Steven were half-siblings, they became romantically involved soon after they met and had a son together. When the couple’s relationship began to deteriorate in 1985, they both started seeing other people. After a violent argument, Elizabeth planned to break up with Steven and move in with her new boyfriend, but she soon vanished. Steven claimed that Elizabeth decided to run off and abandon their son, but he himself would abandon the child a few months later when he moved to Idaho with another woman.

In 1999, Steven was living under an assumed name in Mississippi with a woman named Katherine Lowery when he became a suspect in her disappearance. Shortly thereafter, Steven was charged with sexually abusing Lowery’s eight-year-old and sentenced to six consecutive life terms in prison. However, neither Elizabeth Eisel nor Katherine Lowery have ever been found.

http://listverse.com/2013/09/02/10-people-who-weren39t-reported-missing-for-years/

Quite a hard read for some so warning-
http://billingsgazette.com/news/sta...cle_7f4c1b53-c86c-5402-b87a-e8a11165c9c3.html

The Advocate - 12/5/99

What a sick, sick guy...wow.

Katherine has been missing for 19 years.

Bumping for you pretty girl! You’re out there somewhere!

Bumping for Katherine

Katherine Lowery is my husbands birth mother. He had told me what had happened and recently he just got a feeling to look into it again and that is what brought me here. I honestly know we need answers to where she may be. Anyone with any tips or clues please let me know. He had started crying about the skull they found when we read the article yesterday, but it was found not hers. Please please anyone with information we need closure. Thank you

Bumping for Katherine, her son and her daughter in law. I don’t think she could have been dealt a worse hand by fate than the one she got.

She disappeared without a trace almost 14 years ago.
The DeSoto County Sheriff's Office hasn't given up trying to find Katherine Lowery or evidence that might point to what might have happened to her.

Many arrows point to an inmate in the state of Wyoming but investigators still need help to solve the case in the Mid-South.

Lowery was the mother of two who made a horrible choice when it came to love. Police believe Lowery's relationship may have played a factor in her disappearance in 1999.
She lived in a rented house in Olive Branch with Steven DeLoge, her boyfriend. It was the last time anyone ever saw the 27-year-old alive.

"It's kind of like finding a needle in a haystack," DeSoto County Sheriff Det. Jerry Owensby. "If someone wants to be missing they can be missing. They don't have to answer to anyone."
This is where the story gets ... disturbing.

Cheyenne, Wy., Police arrested DeLoge for sexually assaulting Lowery's daughter in November of 1999. Wyoming police say when they questioned the two children about their mother's whereabouts they said they had not seen her since February.
DeLoge was convicted and sentenced to six life sentences for the assaults. "He is most definitely a person of interest, most definitely," Det. Owensby said.

DeLoge refused to cooperate and for good reason. He's the prime suspect in the disappearance of his own sister, after she ended a romantic relationship during which the two had a child together.
"There is some suspicious activity somewhere," Det. Owensby.
But what about Lowery? What happened to her? Six years ago in 2007, investigators found a human skull but DNA tests showed it was not hers.

The home she rented is gone as the area changed by redevelopment.

4 Unidentified Person Exclusions:



Unidentified Person / NamUs #UP8419
Date Body FoundJanuary 16, 2001
StateVA
CountyIsle of Wight


Unidentified Person / NamUs #UP12683
Date Body FoundJune 06, 2014
StateVA
CountyNewport News


Unidentified Person / NamUs #UP8191
Date Body FoundMarch 29, 1999
StateTN
CountyHamilton


Unidentified Person / NamUs #UP2801
Date Body FoundJuly 25, 2004
StateNY
CountyQueens

jmcbride20 said:

Katherine Lowery is my husbands birth mother. He had told me what had happened and recently he just got a feeling to look into it again and that is what brought me here. I honestly know we need answers to where she may be. Anyone with any tips or clues please let me know. He had started crying about the skull they found when we read the article yesterday, but it was found not hers. Please please anyone with information we need closure. Thank you

Click to expand...

I've been researching this case. I live in Olive Branch and welcome the opportunity to help. I'm also a PI.

LOWERY WAS LAST SEEN IN OLIVE BRANCH, MISSISSIPPI ON FEBRUARY 2, 1999. SHE LIVED WITH HER 8-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER, 9 YEAR-OLD-SON, AND HER HUSBAND, SHELDON WRIGHT VANHOUTE. HE WAS NOT THE FATHER OF HER CHILDREN.

LOWERY DISAPPEARED ON HER DAUGHTER’S BIRTHDAY. SHORTLY AFTER, VANHOUTE MOVED HIMSELF AND LOWERY’S CHILDREN TO A HOTEL IN CHEYENNE, WYOMING. HE MADE THE CHILDREN STAY IN THE HOTEL ROOM DURING THE DAY WHILE HE WAS AT WORK AND DID NOT ENROLL THEM IN SCHOOL.

LOWERY’S DAUGHTER ESCAPED FROM VANHOUTE IN OCTOBER 1999 AND REPORTED TO AUTHORITIES THAT VAHOUTE HAD BEEN SEXUALLY ASSAULTING HER FOR SEVERAL MONTHS. HE WAS CONVICTED OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND SENTENCED TO SERVE SIX LIFE TERMS.

INVESTIGATORS DISCOVERED THAT VANHOUTE WAS LIVING UNDER AN ALIAS AND HIS REAL NAME WAS STEVEN “TROY” DELOGE. HE WAS ALSO SUSPECTED IN THE DISAPPEARANCE OF HIS HALF-SISTER, ELIZABETH EISEL.

AUTHORITIES DID NOT BELIEVE THAT STEVEN WAS A SUSPECT IN LOWERY’S DISAPPEARANCE UNTIL HE WAS CONVICTED OF SEXUALLY ASSAULTING HER DAUGHTER. THEY WENT TO THE MISSISSIPPI HOME THAT STEVEN AND LOWERY SHARED. STEVEN HAD ATTEMPTED TO CLEAN THE HOME PRIOR TO LEAVING FOR WYOMING WITH THE CHILDREN. INVESTIGATORS WERE ABLE TO FIND BLOOD EVIDENCE IN THE HOME; HOWEVER, THEY WERE UNABLE TO LOCATE LOWERY.

STEVEN REMAINS THE MAIN SUSPECT IN THE DISAPPEARANCE OF LOWERY AND EISEL BUT HE HAS NOT BEEN CHARGED IN EITHER CASE.

KATHERINE LOWERY IS PRESUMED DECEASED BUT HAS NOT BEEN LOCATED.