Samantha Jean Hopper biography: 10 things about Russellville, Arkansas woman

Samantha Jean Mahan Hopper was an American woman from Russellville, Pope County, Arkansas, United States. Here are 10 more things about her:

1. She was born in Dover, Pope County to Ricky Velmar Mahan and Deborah “Debbie” Kay Mahan.
2. She is Oliver Seward, Euvie Seward and Joyce Grigsby‘s granddaughter.
3. She and Lester Holt Jr. are the parents of Courtney Esther Danielle Holt.
4. She is Daniel M. Mahan and James Roy Mahan‘s sister. On August 21, 1988, Daniel died in Mill Creek, Pope County at age 11.
5. In August 1994, she gave birth to Dezarae Michelle Hopper.
6. On January 15, 1997, she gave birth to Courtney in Russellville.
7. On October 22, 1997, she turned 19.
8. On September 11, 1998, she was in Russellville where she was last seen alive. That day, she came home from work at Waffle House and told her mother that she and a friend were going to a concert in Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas on September 12, 1998. She reportedly traveled in a blue 1989 Ford Temp to drop her daughter Courtney. Family and friends never heard from her and Colt since then. She was 8 months pregnant at the time of her disappearance.
9. In 2013, Pope County Sheriff’s Office criminal investigation division detective Erick Riggs was assigned to her case. He asked Dezarae to complete a deoxyribonucleic acid swab to submit to a national database of unidentified bodies.
10. On October 26, 2021, the Pope County Sheriff’s Office received a call from members of the nonprofit group Adventures With Purpose, who reported that they located a vehicle matching her blue Ford Tempo in the water near Pleasant View Road in Russellville. Human remains were found inside vehicle once it was removed from the water. The remains were sent to the Arkansas State Crime Lab in Little Rock for DNA testing.