Divers find the body of missing three-year-old Mariah Woods at the bottom of a remote creek 25 miles from her home - hours after her mother's boyfriend was charged with 'concealing her death'
Authorities say they have recovered a body they think is a missing three-year-old North Carolina girl from a creek in a neighboring county.
Onslow County Hans Miller said dive teams found Mariah Wood's body around 5.30pm Saturday.
FBI spokeswoman Shelley Lynch said in a statement the body was in Holly Shelter Creek along Shaw Highway in Pender County creek about 25 miles from Mariah Woods' home in Jacksonville.
Earl Kimrey (left) has been arrested in the disappearance of his girlfriend Kristy's three-year-old daughter Mariah Woods (right). Her body has now been found
Her body was found in Holly Shelter Creek (pictured) in Pender County creek about 25 miles from Mariah Woods' home
A boat is pictured at one of the search locations. Mariah's body was found by divers Saturday
Law enforcement search near the Southwest Creek Bridge for three-year-old Mariah Woods
The medical examiner still needs to identify the body, but investigators are confident it is Mariah, Lynch said.
Deputies have charged 32-year-old Earl Kimrey in the death. Arrest warrants say Kimrey moved Mariah's body from where she died, knowing her death was not natural. They haven't said how they think the girl was killed.
Kimrey is the live-in boyfriend of Mariah's mother Kristy. He was arrested in the early hours of Saturday morning.
On Saturday, Kimrey was brought before a magistrate to be charged with concealing a death, obstruction of justice, burglary, larceny and possession of stolen property.
He is now being held in county jail on a bond of $1,010,000.
'It was too late to save Mariah the moment the 911 call came in,' FBI agent Stanley Meador said of the call the girl's mother made Monday to report her missing. 'The arrest warrants are public record and the records speaks for themselves. We will not discuss any details related to the homicide investigation.'
One arrest warrant also charges Kimrey with larceny, breaking and entering and possession of stolen goods, according to News Channel 12.
He is accused of stealing two dressers after breaking into a home in Jacksonville between 11pm on Sunday and 3.30am on Monday.
Kimrey has a long criminal history which includes charges for larceny, assault, threats to government and being drunk and disorderly.
The charges date back to 2002. They stretch over several counties and two states.
Police and volunteers turned out in their hundreds on Friday to search for Mariah who, at that time, was still hoped to have been alive
An organizer for the National Center for Exploited and Missing Children speaks to volunteers on Friday before they went out to look for the girl
Social services would not confirm on Friday whether they had ever investigated Kimrey or the home where Mariah was living.
A spokesman refused when asked by DailyMail.com if there had ever been reported concerns about the family and said the information was confidential.
On Saturday, Meador urged people with surveillance footage near where the girl disappeared to call police and share the video as they investigate her death.
He asked businesses or residents who live on U.S. Highway 17 or state Highway 53 in Onslow and Pender counties to call police if they have surveillance cameras.
The toddler had been missing since 6am on Monday. Kimrey and her mother Kristy Woods told police he was the last to have seen her at around midnight on Sunday.
They said he told her to go back to bed and that when they went to her bedroom the next day, she was gone.
Days ago, the girl's biological father Alex Woods said he did not believe Kimrey's story that Mariah was abducted by a stranger.
Woods, who has not seen her for a year despite claiming to have visitation rights, said he had been trying to get Mariah out of the home but that he could not afford a lawyer.
Kristy Woods' boyfriend Earl Kimrey has been charged in the death (pictured Kristy and Mariah)
Kimrey (above with Mariah's mother Kristy) told police he was the last to see Mariah alive
'Someone just walked right up in there, grabbed the 3-year-old out of the bed and she didn't cry, she didn't scream?
'Nobody heard anything? Four people in the house, two adults and two kids, someone just comes up and snatches the baby and walks out?', Alex Woods said.
Kristy, who this week disabled her Facebook account after posting the missing person's appeal for her daughter, claimed that Mariah was taken by a stranger.
In a tearful television appearance on Tuesday, she said: 'Please, bring her back.
'I love her. I'll do anything that I can, whatever you want.
'Please just bring her back safe and sound – she's my baby, she's my everything.'
Kristy called police to report her missing on Monday at 6am
Suspicious: Mariah's biological father Alex, who has not seen her for more than a year, said he did not believe Kimrey's story that his daughter was abducted by a stranger. He is pictured with his wife Heather earlier this week
Kristy made a tearful appeal to her daughter's abductor earlier in the week and begged for her to be brought back
Mariah is pictured with her mother, mother's boyfriend, and her two older brothers. Her biological father says he has been trying to get sole custody of the children for years
On Friday, 700 local volunteers turned out to join in the search for Mariah. At the time, they were still hoping to find the girl alive.
'Items of interest' which the FBI sent to its lab in Quantico earlier in the week have still not been revealed.
They were sent straight to the FBI's base in Virginia for testing on Wednesday afternoon.
Earlier that day, agents were seen searching the trailer where Mariah lived with her 29-year-old mother Kristy, her older brothers and Kimrey.
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