Body found in creek believed to be missing 3-year-old

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JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Authorities say they have recovered a body they think is a missing 3-year-old North Carolina girl from a creek in a neighboring county.

Onslow County Hans Miller said dive teams found Mariah Wood's body around 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

FBI spokeswoman Shelley Lynch said in a statement the body was in a Pender County creek about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Mariah Woods’ home in Jacksonville.

Miller didn’t release any other details at a news conference.

Deputies have charged 32-year-old Earl Kimrey with concealing a death. Arrest warrants say Kimrey moved Mariah’s body from where she died, knowing her death was not natural. They haven’t said how they think the girl was killed.

Kimrey was living with the girl’s mother.

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4:30 p.m.

People with surveillance footage near where a 3-year-old girl disappeared in eastern North Carolina are being urged to call police and share the video as they investigate the girl’s death.

FBI agent Stanley Meador on Saturday asked businesses or residents who live on U.S. Highway 17 or state Highway 53 in Onslow and Pender counties to call police if they have surveillance cameras.

Onslow County deputies say they charged 32-year-old Earl Kimrey with concealing a death. Arrest warrants say Kimrey moved Mariah Woods’ body from where she died, knowing her death was not natural.

Officials refused to say how the girl was killed.

Onslow County Sheriff Hans Miller said at a news conference that deputies are just as determined to bring the girl home as they were when it was still possible she was alive.

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10:45 a.m.

Arrest warrants say a man took the body of his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter from where she died, knowing her death was not natural.

The warrant released Saturday on a charge of concealing a death against 32-year-old Earl Kimrey did not say how investigators think she died.

Onslow County deputies say they have not found Mariah Woods’ body and will continue to search the eastern North Carolina woods with hundreds of volunteers.

Kimrey lived with Mariah and her mother in Jacksonville.

The girl’s mother made tearful pleas for her daughter in the days after she disappeared sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning.

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9:45 a.m.

Authorities say the man charged in the disappearance of a young North Carolina girl is the boyfriend of the child’s mother.

FBI spokeswoman Shelley Lynch confirmed in an email Saturday that 32-year-old Earl Kimrey was living with 3-year-old Mariah Woods and her family when she disappeared nearly a week ago.

The Onslow County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that Kimrey, of Jacksonville, North Carolina, was arrested late Friday on charges that include concealing a death and obstruction of justice.

The statement says investigators think the girl is dead, but didn’t say how she might have been killed. Deputies say her body has not been found.

The statement did not say if Kimrey has a lawyer.

Hundreds of volunteers have come to eastern North Carolina to look for the girl.