Missing 3-year-old presumed dead
Police charge mother’s boyfriend as search for body continues
Investigators announced a grim turn in the case of Mariah Woods, a disabled 3-year-old whose mother said she vanished from their eastern North Carolina home on Sunday.
The mother’s live-in boyfriend has been arrested in connection with the girl’s disappearance, authorities said Saturday morning, and Mariah is likely dead.
Earl Kimrey, 32, was arrested late Friday and charged with concealing a death, obstruction of justice, second-degree burglary, felony larceny and possession of stolen property.
He was being held in the Onslow County Detention Center with bail set at $1,010,000. Authorities haven’t said what led investigators to identify Kimrey as a suspect, but other charges could be coming.
According to search warrants obtained by the Jacksonville Daily News, Kimrey is accused of “removing Mariah Woods’ body from the scene of her death, and did conceal Mariah Woods’ death and body.”
The warrant says that Mariah died of “unnatural causes” and that Kimrey “acted with deceit and intent to defraud,” but doesn’t provide additional details.
What is clear is that the focus of the search has shifted. Police and the FBI are no longer looking to find a missing little girl; they’re trying to recover her body.
Her disappearance prompted a widespread search after her mother’s plea for her safe return.
“Please, bring her back,” Kristy Woods told CBS-affiliate WNCT. “I love her. I’ll do anything that I can, whatever you want. Please just bring her back safe and sound — she’s my baby, she’s my everything.”
Alex Woods, Mariah’s biological father, told WCTI that he had suspicions about the story of her disappearance. “Someone just walked right up in there, grabbed the 3-year-old out of the bed, and she didn’t cry, she didn’t scream?” he said.