Heather Leann Pope used to be in junior high college when her family realized she used to be listening to impaired. For years the style, bubbly lady spoke slightly louder than others — and would routinely reply to folks in a system that generally didn’t form sense to them.
Nonetheless when Heather got listening to aids as a teen, a entire contemporary world unfolded for her.
“I bear in mind after we got her listening to aids, we got into the vehicle and it used to be raining,” Heather’s mother, Carla Pope, instructed Dateline. “She requested me, ‘Mama, is that the rain I hear on the windshield?’ I pretty couldn’t utter I didn’t know the strategy microscopic she could perchance hear.”
Carla mentioned her daughter used to be bullied by kids in college, on account of her incapacity, however that didn’t discontinuance her from treating all people with kindness.
“She struggled, and so did we,” Carla mentioned. “Nonetheless she continually stored an even angle, it’s no longer vital what.”
It wasn’t unless Heather’s funeral in 2010 that her family in point of fact realized the profound and certain end she had on others.
“So many — pretty so many folks came up to me pretty there at the funeral and instructed me regarding the total ways Heather touched their lives,” Carla mentioned as she accumulated choked encourage tears ten years later. “She used to be kind to all people – from the dirtiest dirt to the oldsters who carried these Louis Vuitton bags. It didn’t matter.”
Carla mentioned no longer lower than 600 folks signed the guestbook and that Heather’s funeral used to be rapidly at ability as folks lined up originate air to say their goodbyes.
Heather used to be easiest 29 years feeble when she used to be murdered.
Carla, and her sister, Paula, who also spoke to Dateline, mentioned they consider the truth that summer of 2010 being a typical sizzling, sticky Texas summer.
After years of bouncing spherical from field to field and job to job, Heather had moved in with her mother in Royse City, Texas.
“She used to be misplaced,” Heather’s aunt, Paula Edge, instructed Dateline. “Nonetheless she used to be discovering her method. Finally discovering her method and then it used to be all taken from her.”
Heather’s aunt and mother instructed Dateline that she had gotten enthusiastic with a “noxious crowd” and had been fascinated regarding the street she used to be heading down.
“I don’t desire to paint a portray that she used to be this superb person,” Carla mentioned. “Because she wasn’t. Nonetheless these folks she hung spherical with had been no longer pretty folks. Nonetheless she used to be kind to all people. She by no method met a stranger. And I judge that got her into anguish.”
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On July 23, 2010, Heather left the house, telling her mother she used to be going to refer to a friend. It used to be the closing time Carla ever saw her daughter.
“It wasn’t contemporary for Heather to pass use the weekend with a friend, for certain,” Carla mentioned. “Nonetheless after just a few days had handed and I hadn’t heard the rest from her, I began to terror. Since it’s no longer vital what, she continually checked in.”
Carla mentioned she called Heather’s father, Randall Pope, however he hadn’t been ready to reach Heather both. The couple, who had been divorced for many of Heather’s lifestyles, maintained a friendship during the years for their two daughters, Carla instructed Dateline.
Heather’s folks reported her lacking to the Royse City Police Division the week after she disappeared.
For the next 11 days, the family searched the role spherical the house in Royse City and nearby Hunt County where Heather had chums, however there used to be no signal of her.
Carla instructed Dateline that Heather in overall hung out with chums at a convenience store in the Quinlan role of Hunt County. Whereas Heather‘s father and a family friend had been out browsing on August 3, she instructed them to attempt the shop and ask if any individual had considered her. Nonetheless as soon as they requested, no person mentioned that they had considered or heard from her.
Heather’s father and the family friend made up our minds to creep the property at the encourage of the benefit store near a vacant house on Cedar Hill Avenue. And that’s where they made the gruesome discovery.
Heather’s badly decomposed physique used to be realized on the bottom beneath a tarp subsequent to the vacant house, fixed with Hunt County Sheriff Lieutenant Roger Seals, who used to be at the scene that day.
“It used to be sensible one of many most popular days of the summer and her physique had been there for awhile,” Lt. Seals mentioned. “It used to be badly decomposed.”
Autopsy results confirmed that Heather’s death used to be the consequence of blunt force trauma to the head.
The Hunt County Sheriff’s Mumble of job launched an investigation, however Lt. Seals mentioned on account of the shortcoming of proof realized, it be been sophisticated to field any individual else at the scene where Heather’s physique used to be realized.
Heather’s mother, Carla, instructed Dateline that she believes a man who Heather befriended is to blame for her abolish.
“I judge he used to be instructed ‘no’ by her too repeatedly,” Carla mentioned. “And that made him angry. Offended ample to commit a unfavorable crime cherish this — a criminal offense of passion.”
Lieutenant Seals confirmed there used to be a person of interest who used to be questioned just a few times, however mentioned there has no longer been ample proof to price him or any individual in reference to Heather’s abolish. He added that no person has been cleared, and the investigation is ongoing.
“I’d love nothing greater than for this case to be solved — for Heather’s family to own closure,” Lt. Seals instructed Dateline. “Out of the total instances we take care of, that is one where all people talks so successfully regarding the sufferer. She used to be positively cherished.”
Nonetheless Lt. Seals mentioned he believes it’s going to capture a search data from to reach forward with data or someone to form a confession for this case to be solved.
“We follow through on every tip and bit of data we accumulate,” Lt. Seals mentioned. “Nonetheless we’re accumulated waiting on the one which will spoil this case originate.”
As this weekend marks 10 years since Heather’s abolish, her family talks regarding the fragment of their hearts they’ve misplaced.
Carla’s other daughter, Christi, accumulated grieves for her older sister.
“She continually looked up to her,” Carla mentioned. “Anything else Heather did, Christi wished to waste. And now she’s misplaced without her.”
Ten years own handed, but Carla mentioned they in point of fact feel no nearer to checking out what occurred to Heather.
In April 2019, the Pope family met with Hunt County Crime Stoppers and equipped a donation of $8,500 in say to expand the total reward to $10,000 for data resulting in the arrest of the person to blame for her death.
Carla mentioned she hopes the cash can lend a hand someone to reach forward with data that will perchance lend a hand procure Heather’s killer and presents their family closure.
“We’re so blessed that we realized her. So blessed,” Carla mentioned. “Otherwise, we’d accumulated be searching for her now. Ten years later. Now, we’re searching for justice. I’m her mama. I have to know what occurred.”
Anybody with information about Heather’s case is requested to name the Hunt County Sheriff’s Mumble of job at 903-453-6800 or Hunt County Crime Stoppers at 903-457-2929.
