The body of a female child was recovered Tuesday night from the Verdigris River as police in Tulsa, Oklahoma, search for two siblings who have been missing since Friday.
Authorities are working to determine the identity of the body, which was found south of Wagoner, the Tulsa Police Department said in a Facebook post Wednesday. Wagoner is about 40 miles southeast of Tulsa.
Miracle Crook, 3, and her brother Tony Crook, 2 were reported missing Friday night at the Shoreline Apartments after family members found their mother, Donisha Willis, passed out, with the children nowhere to be found.
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“From all indications, the mother did not know where they were and certainly didn’t try to help in locating these children,” Tulsa police chief Wendell Franklin said at a news conference.
It’s believed that the last person who saw Miracle and Tony was Willis. Surveillance video from around 8:30 a.m. Friday shows the children walking through a convenience store.
Tulsa police chief Wendell Franklin said the siblings were at the store with Willis.
A few hours later, around 10:15 a.m., another video shows the kids walking alone through their apartment complex. A third video shows them playing in a grassy area along Mingo Creek, which is located near their home.
They were alone and only wearing diapers, Franklin said at a news conference on Tuesday. The children are then seen on the video holding hands and walking down a set of stairs to the water.
Franklin said the search for the children is now a recovery effort.
Willis does not have custody of the children, who were in the care of their aunt. The chief said the mother “should not have had these children.”
She has since been arrested and faces charges of child neglect and assault and battery of a police officer, according to NBC affiliate KJRH in Tulsa. The police chief said she has not been forthcoming with investigators.
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