Search for missing 4-year-old Oklahoma girl turns into ‘recovery operation’

On Monday, officials said the search for a missing 4-year-old girl in Oklahoma who authorities believe was killed by her guardian has become “an operation to find her remains.”

The Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation statement comes after the couple who cared for Athena Brownfield were charged in connection with her disappearance.

Authorities have been searching for Athena for days after a postal worker found her 5-year-old sister wandering alone last week near their caretakers’ home in Cyril, about 70 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.

Yvonne Adams, 36, was arrested Thursday in Arizona and was due to be extradited to Oklahoma on charges of first-degree murder and child neglect, the state bureau said.

His wife, Alicia Adams, 31, was arrested by the Grady County Sheriff’s Office on two counts of child neglect in connection with the case, the state bureau said. It was unclear if any of them had lawyers.

Alicia Adams was related to Athena and her 5-year-old sister, the state bureau said, adding that the two siblings had been in her care for at least a year.

According to the agency, investigators searched areas of the Caddo district, where Cyril lives, looking for the remains of Athena.

The state bureau sought to dissuade members of the public from participating in the search, warning that “individuals who search for Athena on their own could trespass or, worse, interfere with the investigation by contaminating potential evidence.”

It stated that the sisters’ biological parents cooperated with the investigation and were questioned by the authorities. According to the State Bureau, Athena’s sister has been taken into custody.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com.

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