Athena Brownfield's caregiver faces MURDER charge: Estranged husband of woman arrested for neglecting the four-year-old will be extradited from Arizona to Oklahoma
Published: 12:02 EST, 14 January 2023 | Updated: 12:04 EST, 14 January 2023
A man jailed in Arizona is facing a murder charge in connection with the disappearance of a four-year-old Oklahoma girl that he had been caring for as the search continues for the missing child. Ivon Adams (pictured right), 36, and his estranged wife Alysia Adams (pictured center), 31, had been caring for missing Athena Brownfield (pictured left), 4, and her older sister Adina, 5, when she vanished.
Adams (pictured) was arrested on Thursday in Arizona on one count of child neglect in the case of Athena Brownfield, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said. Police said in a post to Facebook on Friday evening that 36-year-old Adams is now facing one count of First Degree murder but did not give further details about what led to the charge. Adams is being held in the Maricopa County jail in Phoenix pending extradition to Oklahoma.
Earlier, authorities said that they arrested Alysia Adams (pictured), 31, on two counts of child neglect, the OSBI saying the 31-year-old is married to Adams. The bureau has released no further details about the arrests and it’s not clear whether either have sought legal counsel.
While authorities have revealed that the pair are married, it appears the couple have since split, with Alysia seen spending a romantic weekend away with her boyfriend just days after Athena went missing. Athena and her five-year-old sister Adina were being looked after by Alysia. Adina was found by a postal worker wandering the streets outside her home in Oklahoma. Police said that Athena could have disappeared Jan 6 four days before she was reported missing on Tuesday Jan 10. Pictured: Alysia Adams, left, Ivon Adams, right.
When the worker said she checked the home no one appeared to be home, she claimed. Adina is said to have told the worker that she was hungry, and that she couldn't find Athena (pictured) - who is described as being 'very shy.' Law enforcement told Fox News that Athena may have been missing since January 6, four days before the postal worker found her sister.
Over the weekend of Jan 7 and 8, Alysia, who had guardianship of the sisters, was seen enjoying a trip to the movies and a meal over an hour away in Oklahoma City with her new boyfriend, Blayden Davis. Alysia was taken into custody on Thursday on charges of child neglect, whereas Ivon was arrested on Friday. Pictured: Athena with her older sister Adina.
It remains unclear why Ivon was in the state, or why he and Alysia had custody of the sisters. Adina is now being cared for by the state. Alysia regularly shares videos of herself rapping on TikTok, singing along to the N-word and making joke clips about her life as a busy mother.
She has four children of her own who regularly feature on her Instagram account, but Athena and Adina are never shown. It remains unclear how the girls ended up in her care.
The children's paternal grandmother, Penny Brownfield (pictured), is in Cyril, Oklahoma, and joined the search for her missing grandchild - the girls' biological parents are yet to be named.
Part of the police investigation is identifying where the parents are, according to a spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation on Friday. Police are now searching bodies of water near the child's home. They have not given any indication of evidence that she is no longer alive.
The child vanished from this house in Cyril, Oklahoma - authorities saying her disappearance only reported four days after she's said to have gone missing.
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