Inisha V. Fowler
Inishia, circa 1998 (seven years prior to her disappearance; more recent photos are unavailable); Age-progression to age 23 (circa 2021); Datwon Fowler; Patricia Fowler
- Missing Since 09/11/2006
- Missing From Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Classification Endangered Missing
- Sex Female
- Race Black
- Date of Birth 10/23/1998 (26)
- Age 7 years old
- Height and Weight Unknown
- Distinguishing Characteristics African-American female. Black hair, brown eyes.
Details of Disappearance
Inisha and her brother Ivon are twins, the offspring of Patricia Fowler. The twins' disappearances were discovered in the summer of 2016.
On June 20, police went to the Fowler home on Bryant Street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with orders from Allegheny County's Department of Children, Youth and Families (CYF) to remove all of Patricia's children from her custody. She was under investigation for medical neglect of four of her children; all of them have serious medical conditions and they had missed approximately six dozen medical appointments in total.
The police removed the four children they found at the home, but on July 6, the CYF agency officials told them there were supposed to be six children. Both police and CYF were unable to find either Ivon or Inishia, who would have been seventeen years old by this time.
Details regarding the twins' disappearances are extremely sketchy. September 11, 2006 is the listed date of disappearance; they were seven years old at the time.
However, family members haven't seen them since 2002 or 2003, when they would have been toddlers, and two landlords who rented to Patricia between 2006 and 2015 are sure Ivon and Inisha never lived with her. The only available photograph was taken when Ivon and Inisha were infants.
When questioned about her children's whereabouts, Patricia told several different stories, including that they were living with various friends or relatives in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
At one point she claimed she'd sold Inisha and Ivon to a casual acquaintance named "Barbara" for $2,000 each. Patricia retracted this statement when she was told it was a criminal offense to sell a child. Police have been unable to verify any of her explanations for her son and daughter's whereabouts.
In a interview with WTAE, a Pittsburgh television station, Patricia stated a "Sheryl Willis", a friend of the family, had "stepped in and helped" and taken them, initially to North Carolina, about "ten years back." She said her children had moved with Willis to Georgia when they were thirteen.
Patricia had not mentioned Willis's name to law enforcement. She told WTAE she is learning-disabled and became confused during the interrogation, but maintained "I didn't sell my kids and they're not missing."
In August 2016, Patricia was charged with endangering the welfare of children, obstructing a child welfare investigation and concealing the whereabouts of the children.
Later that same month her eighteen-year-old son, Datwon Fowler, was charged with intimation, relation or obstruction in child abuse cases, criminal conspiracy, obstructing administration of law or other government function, and giving false identification to law enforcement.
He admitted he'd contacted police via a Facebook message and a cellular phone text message, both times claiming he was Ivon and that Ivon and Inisha were in the Atlanta, Georgia area. He told investigators he sent the messages so they would stop bothering him and his mother with questions about the twins' whereabouts. Photos of Datwon and Patricia are posted with this case summary.
In May 2017, a judge threw out most of the charges against Patricia, leaving only the one of unsworn falsification, in relation to her misleading statements to the police.
A police officer who testified at the hearing said he believed Inisha and Ivon were dead, based off of Datwon's statements that they were "sick" when he last saw them over a decade earlier. However, the judge stated there was insufficient evidence that Patricia had endangered or harmed the twins or concealed their whereabouts from their father, and that she could not have obstructed justice in a child abuse case because there was no evidence of child abuse.
Other charges against Patricia remained outstanding, however. In July, she pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child, unsworn falsification and public assistance false statements.
She was sentenced to four years of probation and was ordered to pay $57,000 in restitution; this was the public assistance payments she'd received for Ivon and Inisha after they were no longer in Patricia's care. As part of the plea agreement, the charges against Datwon were dropped.
On November 8, 2000, when Ivon was two years old, he was severely burned over 46% of his body. His mother didn't call an ambulance until the next day, and he remained hospitalized until December 13.
Patricia claimed Ivon's older brother had accidentally scalded him in the bath. The twins were both taken from Patricia's care after that incident, but they were returned within a couple of days, and CYF caseworkers never notified police. CYF continued to have contact with the Fowler after that, mostly involving Patricia's failure to make sure her children attended school.
There is no record of Ivon or Inisha ever having been enrolled in school in Pennsylvania or other states, and none of the relatives police have been able to locate either had the children or knew their whereabouts.
Two of the twins' siblings stated first one and then the other was simply "gone" one day. The social worker who thought they saw the twins in 2006 later admitted they might have been mistaken, as the child they thought was Ivon didn't appear to have the extensive scarring he should have had from his scalding.
In spite of this, both Patricia and Datwon insist Inisha and Ivon are alive and well. Their cases remain unsolved.
Investigating Agency
- Penn Hills Police Department 412-798-2011
Updated 6 times since October 12, 2004. Last updated July 14, 2022; age-progression updated.