CYRIL, OK — The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation announced Thursday they have identified the remains of a child in rural Grady County as Athena Brownfield.
Authorities found the remains last week and were waiting on the medical examiner to confirm the remains belonged to the 4-year-old girl from Cyril, Oklahoma.
Court documents say the caregiver of Brownfield beat her to death on Christmas Day a couple of weeks before she was reported missing.
Authorities shifted to a recovery effort after concluding she'd been killed by her caregiver Ivon Adams.
Adams was arrested in Phoenix and is in custody and facing one count of first-degree murder and one count of child neglect.
Athena and her five-year-old sister are related to Alysia Adams. The girls were in Adams's care for at least a year when a postal worker found the older girl outside the home with no supervision on Jan. 10. The postal worker called police and that's when they started looking for Athena.
An arrest warrant affidavit officials say caregivers Ivon and Alysia Adams never took the children to the doctor for check-ups and did not enroll the 5-year-old in school. Alysia Adams is facing two charges of child neglect.
According to the affidavit, Alysia Adams admitted she knew Athena was dead. She told investigators that Ivon Adams beat Athena and held her up by her arms.
"[Ivon Adams] then laid her on the ground and punched her at least three more times in the chest. [Athena] never moved after that," Alysia Adams told investigators according to the affidavit.
The document says Ivon Adams told Alysia Adams that he buried Athena’s body near a fence line near their old property in Grady County.
Investigators interviewed the biological parents of the girls and said they are cooperating with the investigation.
