Missing four-year-old Athena Brownfield’s caretakers are arrested

The caretakers responsible for missing Oklahoma toddler Athena Brownfield were arrested yesterday on charges of child neglect, as the search for the child continued.  

Athena, four, has been missing since at least Tuesday, when a postal worker found her older, five-year-old sister, wandering around outside alone near their home in Cyril, Oklahoma. 

Alysia Adams, 30, and her husband Ivon were responsible for looking after the girls. 

The pair were arrested separately on Thursday; Alysia was taken into custody in Oklahoma, while Ivon was arrested in Arizona. 

The pair are not thought to have been together when the child went missing. 

Alysia Adams, 30, and her husband Ivon (right) are responsible for looking after the girls. She is now in custody on charges of child neglect – but Athena remains missing 

Four-year-old Athena Brownfield has been missing since at least Tuesday. That’s when police realizing she had vanished, after receiving a call from a postal worker who found her sister wandering the streets near their home in Cyril, Oklahoma 

Trash service was suspended in the town of Cyril on Thursday as police looked for ‘clues’, and a truck from the Adams’ home was towed on Thursday night after the caregiver’s arrest. 

Neighbors told local outlet KFOR that they hadn’t seen Alysia since last Thursday. 

They noticed a child’s trike in the middle of the road, which they said they found strange, but saw no sign of either Athena or her sister.  

On Thursday, Adams was booked into county jail on charges of child neglect. 

There is still no sign of Athena. Adams’ husband has not been arrested. 

It remains unclear why the girls were taken into Adams’ care, of if there were any other children living in the home. 

Part of the police investigation is determining where Athena’s biological parents are, and whether they had anything to do with her disappearance, authorities said yesterday. 

‘Right now our top priority is locating her and sorting out who’s responsible will come next. 

The home where the child was meant to be living with her sister in Cyril. Neighbors say they haven’t seen Alysia since last Thursday 

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Oklahoma Highway Patrol officers searched lakes near the child’s home on Thursday 

‘But we need to find this little girl,’ Brook Arbeitman, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, said. 

Athena’s five-year-old sister, who has not been named, did not require any medical care when she was found. 

She is now in the custody of the state. 

The postal worker told police that he quickly realized the child was ‘not where she was supposed to be’. 

Once he reported finding her, authorities launched an investigation and determined Athena was missing. 

It’s unclear if Adams or her husband were in the home at the time.