Amber Alert cancelled after missing Milwaukee girls, mother found dead in garage, woman's boyfriend arrested
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN: A 26-year-old mother named Amarah "Jerica" Banks and her daughters, four-year-old Camaria Banks and five-year-old Zaniya Banks were found dead in a garage after an Amber Alert was issued for the children on Sunday, February 16.
Milwaukee Police chief Alfonso Morales confirmed that the boyfriend of the mother was arrested and taken into custody in Tennessee.
Chief Morales also said that Banks had been reported missing to the Milwaukee Police Department on February 9. It was later found that her two children were also missing. On Saturday, February 15, MPD was notified by authorities in Tennessee that they had made contact with Banks' boyfriend, Arzel Ivery.
Morales shared that it was Ivery who provided investigators with information that led them to the garage where they found the three bodies. Chief Morales was questioned why it took a whole week to issue the Amber Alert and said that there are certain criteria that must be met for an Amber Alert to be issued.
He also shared that foul play had not been a part of his initial investigation. Chief Morales had shared that a criminal complaint had been drafted to allow the police to bring Ivery into custody. According to online records, a felony charge of aggravated battery had been issued against Ivery out of Milwaukee County.
We had previously reported that Banks' family had said that she and her daughters were last seen after a funeral for Banks' one-year-old son, Arzel, who had died of natural causes on Friday.
The family had plans to have brunch together on Saturday afternoon. Banks' car was found outside her sisters' house where she had left it.
Her sisters said that Banks had a few glasses of wine and didn't want to drive. "She's like, 'Meka, don't forget to come get me in the morning.'"
"I said: 'I'll come get you. I'll come get you'. My sister, this not like her. She don't run off, she don't ignore people. No matter what she go through, she gonna reach out to me," one of Banks' sisters, Tameka, shared with ABC News.