Child's body is pulled from Tulsa river near spot where two toddlers were last seen 'walking holding hands' - as their mother tells cops the children 'don't even matter'

Police in Tulsa looking for two missing toddlers who left their home alone last week  confirmed that a child's body was found in the Verdigris River overnight.

Wagoner and Muskogee County Emergency Management crews in Oklahoma recovered the body late Tuesday night and are now working with police to determine the deceased child's identity. 

Authorities say there is a possibility the body in the river is connected to the disappearance of Miracle Crook, three, and her brother Tony Crook, two, who vanished last Friday and were last seen on surveillance video walking away from their apartment holding hands. 

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Miracle Crook (pictured left), aged three, and her brother Tony Crook (right), two, were last seen on Friday at a store in Tulsa and subsequently at their apartment. On Tuesday night, a child's body was found in a nearby river 

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Emergency crews are seen looking for the missing children in a Tulsa creek on Tuesday 

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The brother and sister were last seen getting down an embankment into a creek and never reemerging. Officers have been searching for the children by boat  

As NewsOn6 first reported, Tulsa Police focused their search efforts on the ponds at the apartment complex where the children stayed with their mother, before searching Mingo Creek, which flows into Bird Creek and eventually the Verdigris River. 

Recent rainstorms have caused the creek to become swollen with fast-moving water. Miracle and Tony were last seen on video going down the embankment into the creek, with authorities saying that there was no other spot where the children could have climbed out safely. 

Muskogee County authorities said bystanders reported seeing a body in the river near the Verdigris Bridge at around 9pm, reported Fox 23.

First responders from Wagoner and Muskogee counties scoured the river and recovered the body overnight.

The search for the missing brother and sister resumed this morning.   

Tony and Miracle's mother, Donisha Willis, 24, remains in custody after she was arrested on suspicion of child neglect and assault and battery on a police officer, with a police report revealing she refused to speak to investigators and told them her toddlers 'don't even matter', according to Fox23. 

On Friday, a security camera at The Shoreline Apartments complex where Willis lives captured her children walking down a tree-lined grassy avenue at around 10:15am, two hours after they were previously pictured at a nearby convenience store. 

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The new CCTV footage from The Shoreline Apartments complex where Willis lives is the last known sighting of the toddlers, circled above 

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The children's mother, 24-year-old Donisha Willis (pictured), was arrested on Friday night accused of child neglect and assaulting a police officer

Police first reported the children missing on Saturday, saying the 'surrounding circumstances are concerning' without explaining further.

At the time, police said the toddlers had last been seen by a relative on Thursday evening. 

However, cops subsequently published a surveillance photo which showed them at a convenience store on Friday morning, when they were with their mother.  

Half an hour later at 9am, a witness saw the mother and her children back in the Shoreline apartment complex.

The new CCTV marks the last time the children were seen. 

Willis, the mother, was arrested after 10pm on Friday evening and is being held on bond in a county jail, according to inmate records. 

She does not have custody of the children, whose aunt is their guardian. It was the aunt who found Willis passed out on the couch in her apartment Friday night.

Police chief Wendell Franklin said Willis was not forthcoming with investigators, and was possibly high on drugs at the time.   

Speaking to local media, Franklin acknowledged that the children may be dead. 

'There’s absolutely no way they could’ve survived 24 hours out here by themselves, so we need the public to help,' he said. 

'There's only two things that can happen here. These children are either on someone's couch asleep, and the people that they're with don't know that these children are missing, or these children are dead.' 

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Divers have been scouring local ponds as part of a police search for the two missing toddlers (pictured above) 

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Cops published a surveillance photo which showed the two children at a convenience store on Friday morning, when they were with their mother

Officers have been searching trash cans and cars in the apartment complex while stopping motorists who leave and enter.   

Search dogs have also been deployed to help police divers who are scouring ponds for any sign of the toddlers.

Local residents and businesses have also been asked to check their security cameras for any footage they might have captured of the children. 

'Please be patient with us as we meticulously search this area,' police said in their latest update on Monday. 

'We are talking to every resident in the complex, knocking on every door, and chasing down every lead.' 

'If you have any information whatsoever, please send it our way and we will dispatch officers to that location immediately to follow up on tips,' one officer said. 

Anyone with information that can help police with their search is asked to call 918-596-9222. 

People who have information and want to remain anonymous are asked to call Tulsa Crime Stoppers at 918-596-COPS.