Body Believed To Be Missing 4-Year-Old Girl Found; 2 Caregivers Arrested

The caregivers of a missing Kentucky girl are in custody after a body believed to be that of 4-year-old Chloe Darnell was recovered, the Whitley County Sheriff Department announced Friday.

Brittany Slaughter, 24, and Adam Hayes, 34, were arrested on multiple charges, including murder and abuse of a corpse. Authorities have yet to officially confirm the identity of the body.

A relative of Chloe’s said on GoFundMe that the 4-year-old had been in the care of an aunt who lived with her boyfriend, referring to Slaughter and Hayes.

Another relative, Chloe’s sister, said in a Facebook post that she and others had initially been allowed to visit the girl, until Slaughter stopped responding to them.

“We started to beg to see Chloe on ft [FaceTime] or the phone and she [Slaughter] always made excuses,” the sister wrote Wednesday.

By then, Chloe had not been seen since late September, authorities said.

Earlier this week, the sheriff’s department requested the public’s assistance in locating both Chloe and Slaughter. It confirmed that Chloe had been in Slaughter’s care, and suggested that Slaughter may have been driving an unregistered and unlicensed red car during the girl’s disappearance.

Chloe’s whereabouts and condition were still a mystery Thursday when police seized the vehicle and found Slaughter later that night, the sheriff’s department said.

After recovering what was believed to be Chloe’s body, authorities said it was sent for an autopsy but did not specify where it had been found. The GoFundMe campaign for Chloe, which aims to cover expenses related to her funeral and burial, said that her remains were located after authorities “searched the area around the house” and surrounding woods, apparently referring to Slaughter and Hayes’ residence.