Searchers are desperately looking for a 4-year-old girl in Oklahoma declared missing after her 5-year-old sister was found wandering alone.
Police and residents of a small Oklahoma town are fervently searching for a 4-year-old girl who was declared missing after a postal worker found her 5-year-old sister frightened and wandering alone, authorities said.
Little has been publicly disclosed about the mysterious case since a mail carrier contacted Cyril Police on Tuesday to report finding the 5-year-old out roaming by herself.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, the Highway Patrol and police are combing the town with infrared helicopters, boats, four-wheel drive vehicles and volunteers are on the ground looking for the little girl, trooper Eric Foster told local reporters Wednesday.
"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," Foster said.
On Thursday, the town of Cyril suspended all trash collection as searchers kept looking.
The state Bureau of Investigation was called in by local police to help with the case, a spokeswoman said Wednesday.
"We are still very actively looking for her using all of our tools. We are finding things that we hope might give us clues as to where she is, but we are still actively looking for her," Brook Arbeitman said at a press briefing.
She declined to answer questions about the parents and who had custody of the girls.
"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.
Asked if the child was in danger, Arbeitman replied, "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. Is that in danger? Yeah. But is she a victim of physical harm? That's yet to be determined."
The 5-year-old sister was described as "frightened" but otherwise OK, authorities said, and has been placed in the custody of children's services workers.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Cyril Police Department at (580) 464-2216, the OSBI tip line at 800-522-8017 or email tips@osbi.ok.gov.
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