Bodies found may be missing Tulsa children

TULSA—Authorities are working to determine whether bodies recovered in a Tulsa Creek and the Verdigris River are those of two toddlers missing from Tulsa.

“I know this is potentially tragic ,” Tulsa Police Chief Wen dell Franklin said Wednesday afternoon during a press briefing after a young female's body was recovered from the Verdigris River on Tuesday night. The chief emphasized that a positive identification had yet to be made.

“My heart goes out to the family,” he continued. “My prayers continue that these two children are safe somewhere, but I know that based on some of the evidence ... we are moreso looking at a recovery operation as opposed to any type of rescue.”

Hours later, police confirmed that the body of a “young, young male” also had been recovered from Bird Creek in north Tulsa.

Police have been searching since the weekend for Miracle Crook, 3, and Tony Crook, 2, after they went missing from an east Tulsa apartment complex. While re-an v ass ing Shoreline Apartments on Tuesday morning, investigators found video footage that showed the toddlers playing Friday in a grassy area near Mingo Creek.

The children' s mother, Don is ha Willis, has not been cooperative with investigators and remains jailed on complaints of assault and battery on a police officer after former conviction of a felony and child neglect after former conviction of a felony.

A fisherman reportedly spotted the unidentified body Tuesday evening, floating in the Verdigris River west of Okay in Wagoner County.

Emergency management officials from Wagoner and Muskogee counties put boats in downstream and worked their way up to the mouth of the Verdigris into the Arkansas River, where they recovered the body, Wagoner County Sheriff Chris Elliott said at the briefing.

The effort has grown to include more than 10 public safety agencies, Elliott said.

Tulsa police and fire, as well as members of Oklahoma Task Force 1's Urban Search and Rescue Team, have searched in and along Mingo Creek up to 36 th Street North.

The creek runs adjacent to the children's apartment complex and eventually reaches the Verdigris River and then the Arkansas River.

Crews were working their way from 36th Street North to 56 th Street North on Wednesday in 1- mile increments, hiking along the banks and slowly floating rafts in the shallow waters. Heavy rains had swollen creeks and rivers with swift waters in the area when the children went missing, but they have since receded.

Roger County Search and Rescue have taken to searching on horseback from there, and Wagoner County Emergency Management and t he Wagoner County Sheriff's Office are searching the waters between Lock and Dam 17 and 18, Elliott said.

Other assisting a gencies include the Oklahoma Highway Patrol Marine Division, the Cherokee Nation Marshall Service, Fort Gibson Fire Department, Muskogee County sheriff's office, Okay Fire Department, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and the U.S. Army Reserve.

Task force members involved in the search estimated about 100 miles of waterway stretched between the apartments along Mingo Creek where the children went missing and the point in the Verdigris River where the body was recovered.

Despite many members of the public wanting to help, Franklin and Elliot asked that they hold off while trained professionals with proper equipment navigate the particularly dangerous wooded areas and waters.

“I know everyone wants to find these children,” Franklin said.

“I know everyone wants to be involved and everyone has that heart of servitude, but right now, I would love for the public to allow us to do that.”

Along with expressing his condolences to the family, Elliot asked members of the public to pray for the emergency workers who are searching.

“It's a tough, tough thing anytime you have to extract a small, deceased child out of a river.”