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(CNN) - It is believed that the remains of a three-year-old girl found in a landfill in Birmingham, Alabama, belong to Kamille “Cupcake” McKinney, a girl who had been missing for just over a week, police said.
Authorities will now work to obtain arrest warrants for murder and kidnapping of two people who were previously named persons of interest in the case of the missing girl, Birmingham Police Chief Patrick Smith said Tuesday at a press conference.
Patrick Stallworth, 39, and Derick Brown, 29, were arrested and interrogated by police last week after video tests and witnesses connected them to a vehicle seen on the night of October 12, when Kamille He disappeared.
The dumpster where the girl's body was placed, Smith said, was not far from the apartment complex where it was last seen.
Stallworth's lawyer, Emory Anthony, said he didn't know "anything about what is happening."
Anthony said he doesn't know anything about the circumstances, the evidence or the reasoning behind his arrest and added that he hasn't talked to Stallworth yet.
CNN is trying to contact a lawyer for Brown.
- Amber Alert issued by a 5-year-old Hispanic girl in New Jersey who would have been kidnapped from the playground
Derick Irisha Brown, left, and Patrick Stallworth, suspected of the disappearance of Kamille McKinney.
"It only takes a fraction of a second"
Police believe the kidnapping was something Stallworth and Brown thought and acted on, and found an opportunity to take the girl, Smith said Tuesday.
The investigation will reveal what happened after that, he said.
"It only takes a fraction of a second," Smith said at the press conference. "We can no longer assume that everyone is part of the village that is trying to raise the girl."
The girl was at a birthday party in the apartment complex where her family lived.
An Amber Alert issued in several states after his disappearance said he could have been kidnapped by a man and a woman in a dark SUV truck.
Police did not obtain any information on the location of the girl when they first interviewed Stallworth and Brown, but were able to obtain arrest warrants for unrelated charges.
Stallworth, who was again in police custody on Tuesday, was previously charged with four counts of possession of child pornography and three counts of possession of child pornography with the intention of distributing it.
Brown remains in custody for an unrelated abduction.
Smith said Tuesday that there is no connection between the two and Kamille's family.
"This little girl has touched a nation," said the Chief of Police. "This girl has definitely sent a message through that nation that we must all be diligent to protect them all."
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The surveillance video
On Friday, police released a surveillance video that they hoped would help find the girl, of two men seen outside the housing complex. Kamille and another 3-year-old boy are also seen in the video, recorded the night he disappeared, according to police chief Patrick Smith.
The video shows a man walking in front of the two children. Later, another man stops and seems to talk to them. The video ends just after the two children follow the second man out of sight of the camera.
One man was a suspect and the other could have had information about the girl's disappearance, police said.
The video was recovered from a surveillance camera within the Tom Brown Housing complex at about the same time as Kamille Mckinney was reported missing. If you are one of the people in the video, we need your help with the investigation! Please call at 205-254-7777. pic.twitter.com/lvaH1XSjuR
- Birmingham Police (@BhamPolice) October 18, 2019
His father begged his return
Kamille, a girl of 90 centimeters and just under 30 kilograms, was last seen wearing a pink T-shirt with a Minnie Mouse leopard print design, according to the Amber Alert.
For days, the state and the country tuned in the search while the police continued hoping to find the girl alive.
“In my heart, I think she is alive, and we will move forward in the hope that she is. It is my hope and prayer that we can safely take her back home to her family, ”said Smith at the end of the week.
He asked the residents of the apartment complex where Kamille was kidnapped to present any cell phone video that might be useful.
Metro Alabama's Crime Stoppers offered a $ 20,000 reward to anyone with information that would help the Police solve the crime.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey offered a $ 5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the kidnapping. A private individual contributed another $ 1,000.
His father begged for the girl's return.
“Leave it anywhere and let it out. Someone will see it. Everyone knows what is happening, ”Dominic McKinney told WBMA, a CNN affiliate. “That will be the end of that. We just want our baby back. ”
- Douglas Wood, Jason Hanna, Dave Alsup, Amanda Watts, Ralph Ellis, Natalie Johnson and Madeline Holcombe contributed to this report.
Amber Alert
