Army of volunteers, FBI join search for missing Onslow County girl

An Amber Alert was issued just before noon Monday for Mariah Kay Woods. She is white, about 2 feet, 9 inches tall and 30 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes.

Mariah's mother said she put the child to bed at their home at 2404 Dawson Cabin Road in Jacksonville on Sunday night and called the sheriff's office around 6 a.m. Monday to report her missing.

Woods said she last saw her daughter at about 11 p.m. Sunday and her boyfriend last saw the toddler at about midnight, when she woke up and he told her to go back to bed.

"I love her and I will never let her go again," Woods said.

As another day without the toddler passes, the girl's father, Alex Woods, said he has more questions than answers.

"If someone just walked right up in there, grabbed a 3-year-old right out of the bed, she didn't cry, she didn't scream, nobody heard nothing," he said.

During a news conference on Tuesday afternoon, Sheriff Hans Miller said that crews were working tirelessly to find Mariah.

"We will use every possible means to bring her home," he said. "Every second counts when a child is missing. No piece of information is too small or insignificant ."

Miller also reiterated the important role the public plays in the search. He asked that anyone who has had contact with Mariah's family since Sunday to please call his office.

Rebecca Crooks helped in the search on Tuesday. She said she does not know the family but felt compelled to help.

"We have little kids, and it is a small community, so it is what you do," she said. "Personally, I would be a hot mess, but we let (the family) know there is a huge community here."

Juanita Locklear lives two door's down from Mariah's home and helped in the search Tuesday afternoon.

"Everybody wants to see this child come home safe," she said. "A lot of us worry about 'is she cold, is she hungry?' And God forbid if anything terrible happened."

Investigators were searching the woods near the family's home and some property within the borders of Camp Lejeune.

"We were going back in some farmland areas and some back roads, back trails, different things back in cornfields," said Mike Caley with Haws Run Rescue.