Police searching for a mystery woman in Texas who rang the doorbells of homes in the dead of night before vanishing have identified her.

The woman was partially dressed and had what appeared to be broken restraints on both wrists.

Footage of her, dressed in just a white t-shirt, was captured on one home's surveillance camera in the Sunrise Ranch area of Montgomery, north of Houston.

Lieutenant Scott Spencer, of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office, said the 32-year-old woman was a domestic violence victim.

He added her boyfriend, 49, was found dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.


Now safe and with her family, the barefooted woman reportedly rang the doorbells of at least five houses in one Texan neighbourhood in the early hours of 24 August.

The partially dressed woman rang the doorbell of a Texas home

"We were dead asleep in our beds. My husband was woken up by the doorbell ringing. It rang probably 20 to 30 times," one resident, who did not want to be named, told US television channel KPRC.

"He walked outside, no one was in sight. It's like she disappeared in thin air."

A video of the woman went viral and showed her emerging from behind a bush next to a house before walking to the front door and ringing the doorbell.

Alarmed residents reported the behaviour and police investigated what they described as a "suspicious incident".

The woman had not been reported missing and is believed to have lived with her boyfriend in the home he was found.