FBI Joins Search For Detroit Kids Whose Mother Was Found Dead In Abandoned Home
DETROIT (WWJ) - The FBI has joined the search for two Detroit children after their mother was found dead Monday in a vacant home in the city.
Police have had contact with both of the children's fathers — Kevin Hunter and 28-year-old Erin Justice — and Detroit Police Chief James Craig said both men are cooperating with investigators.
Detroit police have confirmed that Justice was questioned by the FBI in Atlanta, Georgia Tuesday night and released.
Craig said the last one to hear from 26-year-old Alicia Fox was Hunter, who is her daughter's father.
"His last communication was with Miss Fox on the third of June, and that was via text at around 5 p.m.," Craig said, updating reporters on the case on Tuesday.
There was no sign of Hunter's daughter, 6-year-old Kaylah, and her 8-month-old half-brother Kristian as of Tuesday afternoon.
"This is a critical investigation, and certainly, first and foremost, is the safety of those two young children," said Craig, "and certainly identifying the suspect."
Craig said Fox moved voluntarily from her home in late May, so when Hunter reported his daughter missing, no Amber Alert was issued.
Asked if an Amber Alert will be issued for the kids, Craig said that's "not part of the investigation."
"We're doing everything we can to find the children," Craig added. "Again, the alarms did not go off initially. This certainly was a mother who left her residence, took her children; and certainly there's a lot of speculation on what could've happened."
Police say Fox recently separated from Justice, to whom she was married.
Her badly decomposed body was found wrapped in blankets Monday night in the basement of a dilapidated home in the 6800 block of Penrod, near the Southfield Freeway and Warren Avenue.
Fox's uncle, Michael Fields, told reporters that he found the body after family members got an anonymous tip that his niece might have been in the area. The discovery came hours after Detroit police issued a missing persons alert for Fox and her children. Police are trying to identify the person who gave Fox's family the tip.
Autopsy results have positively identified the body as that of Fox. The Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office said Fox was shot twice in the head.
Police are also trying to locate Fox's burgundy Chevy Impala with Michigan license plate "CCR 1286."
Anyone with information about this case or the children's whereabouts is asked to call Detroit police at 313-596-1240 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-SPEAK-UP.
