Yvette Slim -- NamUs #MP76354

By: Shane Lambert

Original time of writing: December 11th, 2020

The case of Yvette Slim is an interesting one. She is NamUs #MP76354, she went missing on June 21st, 2020, she disappeared from Katy, Texas, and she was 23 years old at the time of her disappearance. For vitals, she was a white female but the skin does look darker than white in her profile picture. She was also 5'2" and 180 pounds. She had brown hair and brown eyes.

For case details, NamUs offered the following at the time of writing: 

"Missing person left her home in the 1800 block of Vanderwilt Lane, Katy, TX on Saturday, 6/20/2020, she was last seen by police on Sunday, June 21, 2020 after being involved in an auto accident, but had not been reported missing at that time. Missing Persons has not been seen since the accident and has not spoken to her family since Saturday."

For me, the car accident is the incident to think about here. I wasn't able to find any online sources on this matter at the time of writing. Nor was I able to find anything in the newspaper database I use. That leaves general case-studies as a perspective to take.

Why might a car accident intuitively be connected to a missing person's case? The thoughtless individual might say "well when someone gets in a car accident" then they might die. However, people that die in car accidents have their remains found. Yvette Slim is not known to be dead -- she is missing person.

I think car accidents and missing people are more likely to be related for another reason. Anyone that gets in a car accident, especially as a driver, is at risk of having his/her life turn south with immediate effect. This is true even if the accident is not that person's fault and it's true even if the accident does not injure the person nor significantly damage the person's property. A minor fender-bender can initiate an annoying legal process that's complete with paperwork and red tape. Of course, many car accidents are not minor -- but even the small ones represent a downturn in someone's life.

A car accident might produce a missing person if an injury causes some kind of disorientation. Hospitals are a good place to look for this person, however, in Slim's case several months have passed at the time of writing, since the accident.

Also, a car accident might produce a missing person if the individual involved in one would prefer to disappear instead of facing the legal matters involved in the car accident. I read the case of an individual who was gone before the authorities arrived and he has not been heard from since. An outstanding warrant might make you flee the scene of an accident as you know that police could be converging on the scene soon. From that perspective, a judicial disappearance should be considered.

Lastly, maybe a car accident -- even one that isn't your fault -- might be a sort of tipping point mentally. Slim's disappearance is a COVID-pandemic-era disappearance during the Trump administration. This remains a stressful time for middle-class Americans. Could a car accident be the proverbial final straw that breaks someone's back? What about affiliated hospital costs for someone who doesn't have insurance? It's fair to say that a car accident, even one that you walk away from relatively intact, could affect a middle-classed individual's economic outlook for many years in the future.

As further food for thought, I looked up missing people where a car accident was mentioned in conjunction with the missing person. This did hit on a semi-famous case and it hit on others that are not that well known.

Blair Minnifield -- NamUs #MP52423: missing since August 18th, 2018, this individual got in a single-vehicle accident and told his mother he injured his face. He went to the hospital and hasn't been seen since.

Stephen Chan -- NamUs #MP50755: missing since April 2, 2018, this man got in a single-vehicle accident, told a tow-truck drive he was taking an Uber, and disappeared.

Brandi Shontay Brown -- NamUs #MP36665: car accident lead to hospitalization and then the individual disappeared upon release.

The search "car accident" actually had a fair amount of hits among NamUs's missing people when I searched the phrase in circumstances. 15 cases came up and described people that disappeared from the hospital after the accident or shortly after the accident itself.

In one case (alluded to earlier), the individual in the accident was gone before the authorities arrived (Seth Adam Muskett -- NamUs #29917). That would raise questions of judicial fleeing but could involve disorientation due to shock or injuries as well.

After reading the cases of missing people where a car accident is mentioned, I have these questions:

1. Was Slim's car accident single-vehicle or multi-vehicle?
2. Did she go to the hospital?
3. Was the accident seemingly her fault?
4. Was she given a breathalyzer and what were the results?

Of course, the famous case of a missing person after a car accident is the still-unsolved case of Maura Murray from 2004. Amidst other troubles, Maura got in a single-vehicle accident and that was the last anyone knew of her.