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AMBER Alert: Surveillance photos released by FBI are not missing NC 3-year-old

Posted at 8:49 AM, Nov 29, 2017
and last updated 2017-11-29 09:50:40-05

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. – The FBI released images Wednesday that they believed may possibly show a missing North Carolina 3-year-old at a Walmart in Morehead City.

However, after several hours, the images were proven not to be that of the missing girl.

An AMBER Alert was issued for the 3-year-old girl on Monday morning.

Mariah Kay Woods was last seen on Sunday, November 26 at 2405 Lot 7 Dawson Cabin Road in Jacksonville, North Carolina at 11:30 p.m. in bed at her home.

The surveillance images from the Walmart store were taken around 9:30 a.m. Monday morning and show an adult and a child that resembles Mariah. The Onslow County Sheriff’s Office says they become aware of the surveillance images after getting information from the community.

Mariah Kay Woods

“The Onslow County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI are attempting to determine whether the child depicted in this image is missing three year old Mariah Woods,” the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “Therefore, we are requesting the public’s assistance in identifying the adult and the child depicted in this image.”

On Wednesday, WCTI spoke with Jetta Long, a 23-year-old Newport woman who says she is the person in the pictures. Long said the girl in the picture is not Mariah Kay Woods, who has been missing since Sunday, but her daughter.

Long told the station she is frustrated that the photos “may have gotten the hopes of the family up.”

Mariah is described as a white female with brown hair and blue eyes, about 2’9″ tall and weighs 28 pounds. She was last seen wearing white and pink underwear.