The three girls were reported missing on Friday.
Steven Santana, mySanAntonio
Aug. 1, 2022Updated: Aug. 1, 2022 3:48 p.m.
Stock photo of crime scene barrier tape.
Tetra Images/Getty Images/Tetra images RFThree sisters who were reported missing from the small North Texas town of Atlanta on Friday, July 29, were found dead in a private pond on Saturday, July 30. The three girls, 9-year-old Zi’ariel Oliver, 8-year-old Amanda Hughes, and 5-year-old Temari Oliver, were discovered just after midnight, the Fort Worth Star Telegram reported.
The Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife Game Wardens for Cass County and Bowie County Dive Teams arrived at the private pond around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday. TPWD game wardens searching the area found one of the girl's shoes by the pond. The children's mother confirmed it was one of her daughter's shoes and footprints were also found in the mud, Texarkana station TKAL reported.
Police couldn't say whether the girls frequently swam in the private pond that was on a State Highway 77 property neighboring their Atlanta, Texas home.
"That is unknown, whether they were swimmers or not. None of them had life jackets on, so I don’t know how strong of swimmers they were or if were swimmers at all,” Lieutenant Game Warden Jason Jones told TKAL.
A family friend was watching the three sisters while their mother was at work the day they were reported missing. It's not clear if the girls drowned in the private pond. The girls' bodies were sent off to a medical examiner to determine a cause of death.
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