FBI Joins Search for Missing Children After Mom Found Dead

The FBI has joined in the search for the missing children of a woman whose badly decomposed body was discovered Monday in a vacant house on Detroit’s west side.

Alicia Fox, 27, and her two children – Kaylah Hunter, 6, and Kristan Justice, 6 months – were last seen more than two weeks ago, WDIV, Channel 4, said. Her family discovered her body in the abandoned house on Penrod Street while posting fliers asking for tips about her whereabouts in the neighborhood.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig told The Detroit News that authorities are “doing everything we can to find the children.” The Michigan State Police, as well as the FBI, have joined in the search.

A man who lives on Penrod near the house where Fox’s body had been found told Fox’s relatives there was suspicious activity involving a U-Haul truck at the address about two weeks ago. The house had been vacant for about 14 years.

“ …We thought maybe someone was moving furniture out or someone was scrapping,” Bill Canty told The Detroit News. “We didn’t think nothing about it.”

The Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an autopsy and determined that Fox died of multiple gunshot wounds, including two to the head.

The two children’s fathers are reportedly cooperating with authorities.

A request by Fox’s family that an Amber Alert be issued to find the children was denied by Michigan State Police, who told WJBK, Channel 2, that the case didn’t meet the criteria because of the amount of time that had lapsed.

» Watch the press conference.