A 4-year-old girl is missing in Cyril, Oklahoma, and the community is desperate to find her. Athena Brownfield was reported missing after an unidentified postal worker found her 5-year-old sister wandering around alone Tuesday, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
The investigation and search for Athena are extremely active, with police gathering video surveillance from neighbors and encouraging the community to search their property for any clues leading to Athena's whereabouts.
Investigators are trying to piece together why the girls were outside alone.
Fox News reported that investigators are actively investigating why the girls were outside alone and where their guardians were at the time of Athena's disappearance. It was not until the postal worker found Athena's sister outside a home at 225 W. Nebraska that she was reported missing.
Brook Arbeitman, the bureau's public information officer, shared a video on Facebook updating the public on the search for Athena. She reiterated that the most critical part of the investigation was finding the child.
"Right now our top priority is locating her, and sorting out who's responsible will come next. But we need to find this little girl," Arbeitman said.
She confirmed that police executed a search warrant for the parents' home, which is standard procedure in this type of investigation.
Community residents worry that Athena may be in danger.
Although Arbeitman would not specifically comment on whether Athena is in danger, she did say that any child who is not with a parent or guardian and is alone outside faces danger.
"There's not anything to indicate that other than she's a little child and she's missing. She's on her own in the elements," she said in the video on Facebook. "Is that in danger? Yeah. But is she a victim of physical harm? That's yet to be determined."
She would not confirm whether Athena is autistic but did say that she has limited verbal skills.
Investigators are asking area residents to follow its guidelines to help find Athena.
The OSBI posted on Facebook that it is encouraging the public to search their properties to look for Athena but that it should stop there.
"Please do not self deploy to search anything other than your own property. If you want to assist in the search effort, please come to the Command Post at Family Life Church," a Facebook post reads.
Multiple agencies are working together to find Athena, which includes volunteer organizations and rescue dogs.
Authorities held a second news briefing Wednesday afternoon to provide more information.
Arbeitman shared that investigators have gathered "items that could be relevant" to the case but would not confirm those items were evidence.
Additionally, she reported that Athena's older sister did not need medical care when the postal worker found her, just that she was frightened. Authorities placed her in protective custody.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Eric Foster confirmed OHP's involvement in the investigation and said the agency is employing all resources to find Athena. He explained that professionals and civilians participated in extensive grid searches.
"Our Emergency Response Team, which is specially trained to go on foot in search of people and things, are out in coordination with civilians who have come and wanted to volunteer their time and effort," he said per Fox News.
Officials have not issued an Amber Alert.
Despite many questions from the community about why there is not an Amber Alert regarding Athena's disappearance, Foster said this case does not qualify.
"There's specific guidelines and things that we have to follow," Foster said, according to Fox News. "Not every part of that guideline came into play in this. So the next best thing that we could do was issue a Missing and Endangered notification that went out in a 15-mile radius from where she went missing."
Arbeitman confirmed that the National Canter for Missing and Exploited Children is involved in the search.
"We are still very actively looking for her using all of our tools," Arbeitman said. "We are finding things that we hope might give us clues as to where she is, but we are still actively looking for her."
Athena was last seen wearing a pink butterfly sweater and pink pants, People reported.
Anyone with information about Athena Brownfield's disappearance is asked to contact the Cyril Police Department directly at (580) 464-2216, the OSBI tip line at 800-522-8017 or email [email protected].
