Remains found last week have been identified as those of a missing 4-year-old Oklahoma girl, authorities said Thursday.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation was initially unable to confirm the remains, found Jan. 17 in rural Grady County, belonged to Athena Brownfield and said a medical examiner would make the identification.
The state office said Thursday that the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner positively identified the remains as Athena.
The office did not provide any additional comment, citing a gag order filed in Caddo County District Court that prohibits law enforcement from publicly commenting on the investigation.
Authorities and volunteers had been looking for Athena since Jan. 10, when a postal worker saw her 5-year-old sister alone near the girls’ home in Cyril, the state office said. At that point they realized another child was missing, said Brook Arbeitman, a spokesman for the agency.
On January 16, investigators said their search had turned into a «salvage operation» to find her remains.
The remains were found outside Rush Springs, about 16 miles southeast of Cyril, in neighboring Caddo County, the state office said. Authorities have not released additional details about where and how the remains were found.
Ivon Adams and his wife, Alysia Adams, were arrested on January 12 in connection with the case.
Ivon Adams, 36, was arrested in Phoenix and faces one count of first-degree murder and one count of child neglect, the state office said.
Alysia Adams, 31, was arrested at the Grady County Sheriff’s Office and is facing two counts of child neglect. She is being held at the Caddo County Jail, authorities said.
According to the couple’s arrest affidavits, Alysia Adams told a special agent with the state’s office that her husband beat Athena to death on Christmas. She said he told her he buried her body near her former residence in Rush Springs, according to the affidavit.
The State Bureau of Investigation has said that Alysia Adams is related to the two girls and that the sisters had been in her care for at least a year.
Athena’s sister was taken into state protective custody, Arbeitman said.
Agents have interviewed the girls’ biological parents and are cooperating with the investigation, the state office said.
After her 5-year-old sister was found, authorities launched a widespread search for Athena, who was described as having limited verbal skills.
The search expanded to neighboring Grady County, and officials had searched ponds and other bodies of water in the area, according to KFOR, an NBC affiliate from Oklahoma City.
Cyril is a city about 65 miles southwest of Oklahoma City in Caddo County.
Clara Cardona Y chantal da silva contributed.