A Texas woman spent over two decades looking for her missing father — only to learn he had been buried just miles from where she lived.
Lovetta Little-Smith, 55, a certified nursing assistant from Houston, carried the weight of not knowing what happened to her father, Almond Gene Little, 49, since he disappeared in 1999.
After years of “emotional distress,” Little-Smith’s search peaked in 2021 through media coverage, billboards, and support from the Texas Center for the Missing.
Earlier this month, detectives confirmed her father’s identity after digging through old cemetery archives, revealing he died just a year after he vanished.
Now, Little-Smith plans to continue helping other families of missing people and encourages them never to give up hope.
“In 1999 was the last time I saw Almond Gene Little, my father, out in Houston, Texas,” Little-Smith said.
“He went missing, and so then what happened was we were on a search for him as a family.”
The emotional journey began when Little-Smith was 30 years old. She didn’t report her father missing until 2011, a delay she attributes to the complicated family dynamics surrounding his disappearance.
Little-Smith’s mom, Lovie Sneed, 72, homemaker, from Houston, was never married to Little and they separated when she was young.
“They were still on speaker term,” Little-Smith said.
Little’s wife, Beverly, 73, a homemaker from Houston, was also searching for answers.
“His wife is actually still living,” she said. “Of course, I was questioned about how long it took for us to report, but again, he was married legally.”
Little-Smith’s search intensified when she joined the Texas Center for the Missing in Houston.
The organization helped amplify her father’s story through media coverage and community outreach.
“They aired me on the news of Fox 26 with dad’s story, just given the circumstances surrounding his disappearance,” she said.
The family’s efforts expanded to include billboards throughout the Houston area and coverage on multiple news stations.
Little-Smith even wrote a book titled “Dear Dad” to express her feelings and document what her father had missed during his absence.
“I wrote a book, ‘Dear Dad,’ just to express my feelings and to also let him know what he has missed out on in my life within the last 25 years,” she said.
Little-Smith herself has three children, a son, 37, and two daughters, 30 and 23.
The breakthrough came in November when a detective from Houston’s Missing Persons unit contacted Little-Smith with potential leads.
“November 5, she called,” Little-Smith said.
“She gave me a few ideas that this could be dad, but she was going to confirm it soon with another call, and the second call came November 13.”
The confirmation required extensive research into archived cemetery records.
“We both agreed that that was dad because they had to dig for additional archives over at the Harris County Cemetery because it was an old burial that they did here in 2000,” she said.
Little died on September 4, 2000, at Doctors Hospital in Houston, just one year after his family last saw him.
Little-Smith recalled receiving tips from neighbors during her long search for her missing father in north Houston.
“I got a few tips from the neighbors while I was looking and searching, and one neighbor told me that dad had gone to the hospital because he was turning yellowish during one of my visits,” she said.
That account later aligned with what a detective told her about her father’s death.
“The detective said he died at the hospital, and it made sense to me that he was buried at Harris County Cemetery under Gene Little, rather than Almond Gene Little.”
“I’m still currently waiting on the death certificate for additional information,” Little-Smith said.
Little-Smith’s relationship with her father was complicated but meaningful.
“My dad and I had a pretty good, stable relationship as far as me and him being able to see each other,” she said, despite not living with him during her childhood.
“He was always involved — popped up from a graduation unexpectedly, and that was a good deal.”
The family had endured a previous tragedy that may have contributed to her father’s struggles.
Little-Smith’s 22-year-old brother, Almond Gene Little Jr., was murdered in 1996 during a home invasion related to drug deals.
“My brother was murdered on June 7, 1996, in a home invasion. He was shot in the head because of some drug deals that went bad,” she said.
The decades-long search took an enormous emotional toll on Little-Smith and her family.
“Twenty-five years of my life have been tied up searching for him,” she said. “It has caused me emotional distress. It includes anxiety, fear.”
This month, Little-Smith and loved ones had a memorial put on for Little.
Little-Smith brought “one of my last gifts from dad,” which was a Winnie bear.
Now, Little-Smith remains committed to helping other families in similar situations.
She plans to continue working with the Texas Center for the Missing to support others searching for loved ones.
She said: “I still plan to be involved to go back over and help the other ones with missing loved ones — to never give up, to never lose hope.”
