The remains of a missing four-year-old have been recovered and positively identified as new devastating details emerge.
CBS News reported that Athena Brownfield, from Oklahoma, had been declared missing this month after a postal worker discovered her younger five-year-old sister outside a home in Cyril without any adult supervision.
After the police were contacted, a widespread search for Athena began, with authorities finally positively identifying her remains 60 miles south of Oklahoma City.
Ivon Adams and his wife Alysia - Athena's caregivers - were arrested two days after she was declared missing. Alysia, 31, was charged with two counts of child neglect, while 36-year-old Ivon was charged with first-degree murder and child neglect.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) announced on January 17 that they had "recovered the remains of a child in rural Grady County outside of Rush Springs," close to where Athena's caretakers used to own property.
OSBI, however, did not positively determine the identity of the child's remains until this week following an autopsy, FOX News detailed.
"The Oklahoma Office of Chief Medical Examiner has positively identified the remains [OSBI] agents recovered on January 17, 2023 as those of Athena Brownfield, 4," the Bureau stated.
In court documents, it was alleged that Ivon had beaten Athena to death and buried her close to the family's old house, per CNN.
During a court hearing, Alysia entered a plea of not guilty to her charges. In an affidavit for Ivon's arrest, Alysia stated that her husband had beaten Athena on Christmas evening multiple times until she was unresponsive. Ivon then allegedly took her body and "buried her near a fence line" close to their previous home in Rush Springs.
OSBI Special Agent Brenna Alvarez stated (via FOX News) in a probable cause affidavit filed in Caddo County: "Alysia confessed that on December 25, 2022, around midnight that night, Ivon beat [Athena] and held her by her arms, [Athena] was not moving and her eyes were barely open [...] He then laid her on the ground and punched her chest at least more three times after that. [Athena] never moved after that."
It was then alleged that Ivon took Athena's body from the home on December 26. "When he arrived back, he told Alysia that he buried her near a fence line that was next to their old residence in Rush Springs," according to court documents.
The same documents allege that Ivon told his wife that be put a "large broken branch" on top of the site where the young child was buried.
Athena and her sister's biological mother had reportedly left the children with Ivon and Alysia two years ago, however, the pair had not enrolled the children in school or taken them to the doctors during that time, per NBC News.
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