My Sister's Ex-girlfriend Concocted And Executed A Plan To Illegally Unhouse Her

Location: Houston, Texas

Names are made up.

Sister (Claire) lives with an ex-girlfriend (Janice). Claire is the only one on the lease, but they have been cohabiting for 4 years. They broke up a year ago but maintained living arrangements for convenience.

Janice asked Claire on Christmas Eve if she could have the house to herself for Christmas so she can invite her extended family. Claire obliged and when she was away, Janice changed the locks without Claire's or the landlord's knowledge. She also kept Claire's phone hostage.

Janice contacted me on January 7th saying she hasn't seen Claire since Christmas Eve and suggested she was in another city on a cocaine bender. As far as we knew and know, Claire has no substance abuse problems. This prompted us to consider this a missing person's case. I phoned every single hospital in that city, every psychiatric centre: surprisingly they gave me patient lookup over the phone and she was not in any of them.

I phoned the police for that city and filed a missing person's report. They interviewed Janice as her residence. I also contacted all of Claire's friends on Facebook to see if they'd seen her. I pieced together events that she was accounted for until January 1st but nothing after. No mention of locks changed or her whereabouts. I thought my sister was dead.

Claire made herself known on January 10th saying she was okay and filled us in on these details. She is safe and in a motel. She had no previous way to contact us and she was denied entry at home. Police have said as it's a housing dispute, they will not allow Claire to "break in" to her own home or change the locks back without going through the courts. Landlord is in contact with everyone and is on our side but is out of town until next month. Janice is also out of town and her whereabouts unknown.

1. Is Janice criminally liable for intentionally feeding me and the police misinformation to slow progress in finding Claire? Our efforts were focused on the entirely wrong city.

2. How can Claire get her home back? Her living arrangements right now are unsustainable. If they've cohabited for so long, doesn't it encroach into common law territory?

3. All of Claire's belongings are at the house she can't get in. She has a lot of expensive things and we worry about things being stolen and/or pawned off. She wants to secure her belongings as fast as possible. How?