The search for missing girl Maleah Davis has ended in heartbreak after nearly a month, after police said that they believe the remains of a child found in a trash bag along an Arkansas freeway are those of the four-year-old girl.

On Friday night, the remains arrived by plane in Houston, where they will be subjected to forensic testing to confirm the dead child's identity and attempt to determine cause of death.

'Do we believe that's it's possibly her? Yes. But can we confirm it right now? No,' Houston Executive Assistant Police Chief Troy Finner said at a press conference on Friday.

Stepfather Derion Marquise Vence, 27, is being held in Houston jail on a charge of tampering with human remains, after allegedly claiming that the girl had died accidentally and admitting that he dumped her body in Arkansas.

Derion Vence made his confession on Friday. He claimed to have killed his young stepdaughter Maleah 'by accident' and dumped her body hundreds of miles from their home

Police searchers made the grim discovery of a child's remains inside a trash bag off this Arkansas freeway on Friday. The remains have been transported to Houston

Police searchers followed the information provided by the suspect Vance to the freeway

Houston Executive Assistant Police Chief Troy Finner said at a press conference on Friday that police believe the remains are Maleah's but that DNA testing is needed to confirm

Houston Police Commander Michael Skillern, one of the officers who traveled to Arkansas, told reporters that authorities had found a child's remains in a garbage bag near Interstate 30 close to Hope.

Community activist Quanell X said he spoke on Friday in jail with Vence, the ex-fiance of Maleah's mother, who had claimed Maleah was abducted.

Quanell X said that Vence claimed Maleah had died accidentally, but then admitted to him that he dumped her body in Arkansas.

Quanell X had previously represented Maleah's mother, Brittany Bowens, but cut ties with her recently saying he feared she may have withheld information about the case.

Sheriff James Singleton in Arkansas' Hempstead County said workers found the bag, which had a foul odor coming from it, near Hope, about 30 miles northeast of the Texas-Arkansas border.

"If this is the little girl, we want to make sure that we treat it with respect and dignity," Singleton said.

Executive Assistant Police Chief Finner said authorities won't be able to confirm if the remains are those of Maleah until an autopsy is performed.

It was unclear how long the identification process would take, Finner said.

Vence is taking police 300 miles from Houston to Hope in Arkansas where he says he dumped her body

Finner said Maleah's family had been notified of Friday's developments in the case and he expects a murder charge will be filed in the case.

"We are here to make sure that little angel receives some justice and whoever is responsible we are going to hold them accountable," he said.

Vence had claimed he, Maleah and his two-year-old son were abducted on May 4 by a group of men in a truck.

He said he and his son were freed the next day but the kidnappers kept Maleah and his silver Nissan Altima. Police said Vence's story kept changing and didn't add up.

Police arrested Vence and charged him with tampering with evidence, specifically a human corpse. He remains jailed on a $40,000 bond.

Chilling last known images of Maleah

Meanwhile, the last known images of little Maleah alive show the four-year-old happily following her stepfather Vence into his Houston apartment on April 30 - but the adorable toddler went inside and was never seen again.

Instead, three days later Vence was captured on surveillance camera emerging from the property alone, clutching a black trash bag believed to be containing Maleah’s remains.

Maleah Davis is shown walking into stepfather Derion Vence's home in Houston on April 30 but was not seen again

In what is believed to be the final image of Maleah alive, the four-year-old is shown entering the apartment in a pink tutu

Vence is seen leaving the family's apartment with a blue laundry basket carrying a large black trash bag on May 3. It is the day he claimed they were all kidnapped

The same day, Vence told police that he, his two-year-old son and Maleah had been kidnapped by unknown assailants.

He claimed that he and the boy had been released, but that the kidnappers had taken Maleah and the car.

It has also emerged that earlier on May 3, Vence would not Maleah's father see the girl when he came to check on her.

Craig Davis, the child’s father, and his sister went to the apartment where Maleah lived with Vence and her mother to check on the young girl, Davis said during a Wednesday court hearing.

Vence did not let them in, saying Maleah had the flu, and denied their request to see her as she was sleeping, Davis testified.

What led police to search in Arkansas

Community activist Quanell X came forward on Friday to say that Vence had revealed the location of the body in a conversation from behind bars.

Quanell claimed the location of where the bag was found matched where Vence told him he’d dumped her body.

But despite the heinous nature of his crime, in an exclusive interview with Fox26, Quanell claimed that Vence appeared more concerned about his public image than he did his impending murder charges during their meeting on Friday.

‘I was able by God's grace to visit Derion,’ Quanell said. ‘He voiced his concerns about how he was being portrayed in the media. He was upset with Brittany. He thought he acted as more of a [parent than Maleah’s mother Brittany Bowens].’

Quanell (above) said he was struck by Vance’s demeanor, claiming he showed 'no remorse' and was more concerned about the public's perception of him

Maleah suffered a brain injury last year which she had to have surgery for. Police said she needed extra care because of it

But Quanell revealed what stunned him most about his face-off with Vence was that he showed absolutely ‘no remorse’ for Maleah's killing.

‘What hurt me [is] he had no remorse. He had no feelings of regret ... and I can't stop crying,’ an emotional Quanell admitted.

‘I had to stop myself from crying because he was so cold in this discussion with me. He cared more about what people think about him, than what he did with Maleah. There was no remorse.’

Theorizing why Vence would allegedly commit such an atrocious act, Quanell said he believed the stepfather snapped after finding out that Bowens was having an affair.

‘I asked him, 'Are you a cold-blooded murderer?' He said it was an accident ... He wanted to make it clear everything he was doing for the children by himself.

‘He was cold. He had a cold spirit, almost like I don't care spirit. That's the part I expected emotions and remorse, there is none.’

Before eliciting the confession, Quanell briefly legally advised Maleah’s mother, Brittany Bowens, before announcing that he’d cut all ties with her this week.

‘I'm a father. I have daughters,’ Quanell told Fox26. ‘It was hard standing by Brittany's side, but I had to do what I had to do to make sure I could find out everything - what happened to Maleah and where is she.’

Quanell alleges that he discovered early on with his time with Bowens that she had actively sought to cover up Vence’s abuse against her daughter on more than one occasion.

‘She never broke down in private conversations, always before the camera. She refused to ever say anything about Derion, even after charged with tampering with the body.’

Another surveillance photo shows Vence entering the hospital with his one-year-old son the day on May 4, after he said they were all taken captive

Vence’s confession comes nearly a month after he first reported Maleah missing on May 4.

He stumbled into a hospital with his one-year-old son claiming all three of them had been kidnapped by Hispanic assailants the day before while driving to the airport to pick up Maleah's mother, Brittany Bowens.

Vence's far-fetched version of events claimed the kidnappers let him and his son go but kept Maleah.

Police were quick to point out inconsistencies in his statements, saying he clearly wasn’t telling the truth but they initially failed to produce any evidence in rebuttal.

However, after the surveillance footage of Vence leaving the home with the trash bag was discovered police also found traces of Maleah’s blood in his car.

'What happened to Maleah was an accident,' Quanell X told The Houston Chronicle on Friday morning. 'He says it was an accident. And he confessed to me where he dumped her body.

Maleah Davis' mother Brittany Bowens' former spokesman, Quannell X, (shown with her) says Vence made the confession to him on Friday. Police have not yet confirmed it

'He was very specific with the amount of distance and time.

'When I was able to leave and look it up on my phone, he was to the point on the distance and time.

'He said that he pulled over in Arkansas, got out of the car, walked to the side of the road, and dumped the body off the road.'

Quanell said he had met with the director of Equusearch, which works with the police in missing persons cases, to find her.

'I think it's true enough that I have an airplane lined up at 3 p.m. to fly a detective, and several officers to go up there and go ahead and start the search.'

But on Friday, a police department in Arkansas confirmed that Vence was on his way with them to the scene of where the bag was discovered to aid the investigation.

‘Maleah didn’t have to die. That little girl did not have to die,’ an emotional Quanell later told KHOU 11. ‘That child was being physically abused and physically tortured in that house and they were covering it up. It's a damn shame that her mother chose her mate over her own daughter.’

The silver Nissan Vence was driving when the alleged attack took place was found on Thursday at a shopping center in Missouri City, Texas, off Highway 6

Quanell had been representing Bowens - who maintains she had nothing to do with her daughter's disappearance - but he distanced himself from her earlier in the week, claiming she too had changed her story.

Bowens says she was out of state when Maleah vanished. Rather than call 911 when her ex failed to turn up for her, she waited for someone else to collect her.

She then claimed that he had done 'something' with her daughter in revenge against her for dumping him and calling him homosexual.

Quanell has since claimed to have found his own evidence that Vence was molesting Maleah.

He insists that Bowens did not know.

Maleah was taken out of her mother's care last year amid claims of domestic abuse.

She required surgery on a brain injury that her mother says she got by falling over.