Officials have increased their search efforts on July 16 to locate a missing 10-year-old Iowa girl after new information related to the missing child was obtained, police said.
The Davenport Police Department said in a statement that the newly obtained information has shifted the search for Breasia Terrell to a rural area outside of Clinton County in eastern Iowa.
An Amber Alert for the missing girl was activated on the morning of July 15, one day after investigators announced a registered sex offender as a “person of interest” in her disappearance.
Police Chief Paul Sikorski identified the person of interest as 47-year-old Henry E. Dinkins of Davenport at a press conference on July 14. He was taken into custody the week before on separate charges of sex offender violations, a class D felony.
“A person of interest is different than a named suspect, a person of interest is someone who has not been arrested or formally charged in this case but may have information that could assist with the investigation,” the police chief explained.
Dinkins has not been charged in Terrell’s disappearance, though the Amber Alert issued on Wednesday described him as the abductor. He is on the state sex offender registry for a third-degree sexual abuse conviction in 1990.
He was taken into custody on charges of violating the terms of his parole by failing to give authorities his latest address and having contact with minors, The Associated Press reported.
The girl’s mother, Aishia Lankford, is convinced the answers are with Dinkins, as she was last seen spending the night at his apartment. Dinkins is the father of Terrell’s half-brother.
Lankford said she understands now that she made a mistake to trust Dinkins, but is still confident that her little girl will come home. Chief Sikorski said last week that he remains the “main focus” in the investigation.
Police described Terrell as a black girl and was last seen wearing a white t-shirt, flip flops, and shorts. She is 4 feet 5 inches tall, weighing 75 pounds, and has black hair and brown eyes.
FBI Offers $10,000
A reward of $10,000 has been offered by the FBI in relation to the missing girl, who hasn’t been seen for over two weeks now, FBI Special Agent in Charge Kristi Johnson said on July 22.
Johnson explained at a press conference the reward will be for “anyone who has information that assists law enforcement in finding 10-year-old Breasia Terrell or leads to the arrest of anyone involved in her disappearance.”
“Because of the nature of our work, many won’t see the FBI working this investigation,” Johnson said. “We’ve been here from the beginning, thanks to the commitment of our partner, the Davenport Police Department, to use all the resources available to them to find Breasia and bring the person responsible for her disappearance to justice.”
Large Search Efforts
Chief Sikorski said last week there is no longer a need for volunteers to help search for the girl within the Clinton County area at this time as investigators continue their search and focus their resources on “pursuing leads that have been developed” and provided to detectives by the community.
Additional details surrounding the leads received last week were not provided by officials at the time. But the police chief said the focus of the search for Terrell remains in the Scott and Clinton counties in eastern Iowa.
“We all want to find her alive,” Sikorski said. “That is what our intent is as we continue with the investigation.”
“We are incredibly grateful to the community to assist in the search for Breasia,” he added. “Several hundred community members responded to our call for volunteers to search, showing the care and compassion of our community.”
The investigation still continues “full steam ahead” and also includes the FBI and state and local agencies, Sikorski said.
The search last week was supported by more than 150 law enforcement personnel, who used aerial support, according to a police release.
