quote:

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (AP) - The FBI has joined the search for a missing 3-year-old North Carolina girl reported abducted from her home as authorities step up efforts to find her.
Onslow County Sheriff Hans Miller told news outlets that investigators need a break in their search for Mariah Kay Woods, who was reported missing from her home about 6 a.m. Monday. The girl's home is in the southeastern part of the state, just west of Jacksonville and Marine Corps Air Station New River.

A statewide Amber Alert has been issued for the girl.

Miller announced that on Friday morning they are conducting a volunteer and citizen search.

Those volunteering to search need to meet between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. at the Dawson Community Church on Dawson Cabin Road in Jacksonville.

Mariah Woods' mother, Kristy Woods, told WITN-TV in Greenville that she last saw Mariah about 11 p.m. Sunday when she checked on her. She said her boyfriend saw the child about midnight when she got up and he told her to go back to bed. Once they realized she was missing, the couple said they called authorities.

She made a plea for the girl's safe return Monday night.

"This is my world, this is my angel," Woods said. "She was sent to me for a reason. This is my everything besides my boys, the love that I have for this girl."

The investigation has the support of more than 14 agencies, Sheriff Miller said. Officials have conducted 100 interviews, followed more than 140 leads and had the assistance of more than 225 investigators working around the clock.

As part of the investigation, the agency released three photographs of an unknown woman and a young girl in a Walmart in Morehead City, about 40 miles east of the girl's home.

The FBI requested the public's help in identifying the woman and child in the photos.

Investigators wanted the public's help identifying both of them, and it appeared Channel 9's sister station WCTI has helped do just that.

WCTI spoke exclusively with Jetta Long Wednesday morning. She is a 23-year-old Newport woman who said the surveillance photos show her and her young daughter.

Long told WCTI she does not know the family of the missing girl and that she is frustrated that the photos "may have gotten the hopes of the family up."

Long's daughter was born with a shortened leg, so she understands how she could have been mistaken for Mariah.

Later Wednesday morning, the FBI confirmed that the child in the surveillance images was not Mariah.

On Wednesday morning, WCTI reported that the grassy area across from the Woodses' home had been taped off with crime tape and that authorities were looking under the house.

A massive search for the girl continues but Mariah's biological father, Alex Woods, doubts her mother's story.

"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?" Woods told WCTI-TV in New Bern Tuesday. "Nobody heard anything? Four people in the house, two adults and two kids someone just comes up and snatches the baby and walks out?"

Alex Woods, who's been fighting for custody of Mariah, doesn't think the girl was abducted.

"Somebody just walked right up in there, grabbed the 3-year-old out of the bed and she didn't cry? She didn't scream? Nobody heard nothing?” he said.

First responders spent Monday searching by air and on the ground.

“[Officials are] working everything that can be worked to find this little girl,” Sheriff Hans Miller said.


Four volunteer fire departments, the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department and K-9 units searched in the wooded area behind the girl’s home as well as surrounding wooded areas, WCTI reported. They also used a helicopter and drones to aid in the search.

“We don’t know what happened. It’s entirely premature to try to determine what happened,” Miller said.

Officials have interviewed both Woods’ mother and her live-in boyfriend and conducted a search of their home and vehicle, WCTI reported.

"I don't believe she would go out by herself, especially in the dark," said the girl’s grandmother, Anne Edwards. “She's a sweet child but she's shy with strangers. So she wouldn't just go with a stranger."

Edwards said the 3-year-old struggles to get around on her own and wears leg braces for assistance.

"It's really tough because it's just like everybody says, 'I didn't believe this could happen to me,'" she said.

Investigators have asked people in the area to check their yards and sheds.

Mariah is described as white, 2 feet 9 inches tall and weighs 30 pounds with brown hair and blue eyes.

Deputies and FBI agents have not revealed any other details about their investigation.

Anyone with information on Mariah's whereabouts is encouraged to call the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office immediately at 910-455-3113, or to call 911.

quote:

"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?" Woods told WCTI-TV in New Bern Tuesday. "Nobody heard anything? Four people in the house, two adults and two kids someone just comes up and snatches the baby and walks out?"

Alex Woods, who's been fighting for custody of Mariah, doesn't think the girl was abducted.

"Somebody just walked right up in there, grabbed the 3-year-old out of the bed and she didn't cry? She didn't scream? Nobody heard nothing?” he said.