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Woman Found In Shallow Grave After Disappearing From Alabama Bar Died Of Accidental Drug Overdose, Coroner Says
Paighton Houston was last seen leaving a Birmingham bar with two men on the night of Dec. 20. Authorities say she died of morphine and methamphetamine toxicity.
An Alabama woman who disappeared after leaving a Birmingham bar with two men died of an accidental drug overdose, according to a coroner’s report.
The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office has determined Paighton Houston, 29, died of morphine and methamphetamine toxicity, according to statement from the coroner obtained by Oxygen.com.
The manner of death has been listed as accidental.
"This represents an overdose and is classified as a drug-opioid death," Chief Deputy Coroner Bill Yates said.
Her body was discovered buried in a shallow grave of the backyard of a Hueytown home several weeks after she was last seen leaving a Birmingham bar with two men.
Houston had been at the Tin Roof bar with coworkers on Dec. 20 when Birmingham police said it appeared that she willingly left the bar with two men, described as heavy-set black males, according to AL.com.
Friends reported on Facebook that Houston later texted one of her coworkers to say that she was worried she might be in trouble.
“Idk who im with so if I call please answer. I feel in trouble,” she said in a final text sent around 12:15 a.m. on Dec. 21, according to the news outlet.
Houston was reported missing later that day.
Her body was discovered by investigators in a shallow grave on Jan. 3, local station WVTM reports.
Fredrick Hampton, a 50-year-old convicted rapist who was said to have been with Houston the last night she was alive, was captured by the U.S. Marshals earlier this week in Ohio.
“We have evidence the victim and the offender were together the night of Dec. 20, 2019,'' Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chief David Agee said, according to AL.com. “We have evidence the victim died the next day at a house on McClain Street in Brighton. We have evidence that after the victim died, her body was disposed of in a criminal manner by Fredrick Hampton.”
Hampton is facing charges of abuse of a corpse in Houston’s death, the sheriff’s office said in a statement announcing the arrest.
He was previously convicted in 1992 for first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy.
