The woman from Oklahoma accused in the death of 4-year-old Athena Brownfield last year is anticipated to appear in court Wednesday to be formally charged with first degree murder.
Brownfield was declared missing on January 10, 2023, when a postal worker found her 5-year-old sister wandering by herself outside the residence of Ivon and Alisia Adams, their guardians, in Cyril. as CrimeOnline reported.
When she was arrested last year, Alysia Adams informed investigators that Ivon Adams fatally assaulted Athena on Christmas Day 2022 and then transported her body and buried it on land he previously owned, where the little girl’s remains were discovered on January 17, 2023. Alysia was charged with child neglect and he with murder when they were apprehended, Alysia in Oklahoma and Ivon in Arizona.
But following an autopsy that revealed the little girl died not from a beating but from “acute pneumonia complicating malnutrition,” the charges were altered. Ivon Adams now faces child neglect charges and is scheduled to appear in court in April.
In December, prosecutors stated they’d upgraded Alisia Adams’s charges because she confined Athena Brownfield in a closet and deprived the child of proper nutrition.
The medical examiner’s report indicated that Brownfield was significantly below expected weight for her size and age at the time of her passing. Furthermore, her body was found placed inside a backpack and buried in a shallow grave — and the backpack, with the little girl’s body inside, weighed only 23 pounds.
[Featured image: Athena Brownfield/handout]