A search for missing Oklahoma 4-year-old Athena Brownfield ended in tragedy after remains discovered last week were positively identified as belonging to the missing girl.
Brownfield was first discovered missing on January 10 after a mail carrier found her 5-year-old sister wandering around outside of a home in Cyril, Oklahoma, CNN reported. Ivon Adams and his wife Alysia were arrested days later and charged in Brownfield’s disappearance. The two were caring for the two young girls, police allege.
“Due to a gag order filed in Caddo County District Court, there is no additional comment on the investigation from the OSBI,” the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) said in a statement posted to Facebook.
Ivon faces additional charges of first-degree murder and felony child neglect and is accused of beating Brownfield to death and burying her near his old house. Alysia has pleaded not guilty to two counts of felony child neglect. She is accused of “failing to protect (Athena) from physical abuse” from her husband, a charging document said.
On January 12, Alysia confessed in an interview with authorities that Ivon beat Brownfield multiple times on Christmas night, leading to her death.
Alysia detailed the brutal details of her husband’s alleged murder, saying that after he beat Brownfield, he “held her up by her arms” and saw that she was “not moving and her eyes were barely open,” the arrest affidavit said.
Ivon allegedly then “laid her on the ground and punched her at least three more times in the chest.” Brownfield stopped moving after that beating.
He then allegedly “buried her near a fence line” outside their old house in Rush Springs, Oklahoma, according to court documents. Alysia allegedly told authorities that Ivon placed a “large broken branch” over the ground where he buried the young girl.
Ivon was arrested in Arizona and was extradited back to Oklahoma, where he is currently in jail.
On January 17, the OSBI announced that it had “recovered the remains of a child in rural Grady County outside of Rush Springs.” At the time, the bureau couldn’t confirm the remains were those of Brownfield, but said they had been taken to the medical examiner’s office in Oklahoma City for identification.
Court documents revealed that the Adams had been caring for Brownfield and her older sister for the past two years, after the children’s biological mother left them in their care for unknown reasons. The couple allegedly didn’t take the girls to the doctor and didn’t enroll Brownfield’s older sister in school.
A funeral for Brownfield was held on Wednesday.