TULSA, Okla. — The Tulsa Police Department held a press conference Friday (May 29) regarding the two children who went missing Memorial weekend, 2-year-old Tony (TJ) Crook Jr. and 3-year-old Miracle Crook.
After an extensive recovery effort, the bodies of both children were found.
In the press conference, Tulsa Chief of Police, Wendell Franklin said, “We wanted to use you as our partners in the media as we were trying to determine what happened to little Tj and little Miracle. When you guys came out to cover that and we did not get any good leads from our crime stoppers, from our non-emergency, from our dispatch, we collectively gathered as a police department and started talking about the other possibilities that these children had gone into the water. So, it wasn’t until later in the week that we found video of them going into the water, going down the embankment toward the water. And when they didn’t come back up from that embankment, we knew what we were dealing with.”
Chief Franklin said recovering the two children became the focus at that time.
On Tuesday (May 26) Rogers County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue brought their horses out to help locate Miracle and TJ.
Wagoner County recovered a young female victim out of the Verdigris and continued searching for the other child.
The Medical Examiner took the victim into their jurisdiction to make a positive identification.
The second child was recovered on Wednesday (May 27) near Rogers County.
Late Thursday night (May 28) the Tulsa Police Department got DNA analysis back, which confirmed the two recovered bodies were TJ and Miracle.
“It’s saddening, but from our perspective, we were elated we were able to bring closure, and this is closure. It’s closure because we were able to locate those two and bring them home to their families,” Chief Franklin said.
The mother is currently in custody for child neglect. The District Attorney is considering if any additional charges will be filed.
During the press conference, Tulsa County District Attorney, Steve Kunzweiler, said, “Whenever a child dies we have the right to ask questions. How could this have happened? Why did this happen? What could have been done to prevent it from happening?”
Kunzweiler said the decision to file charges is never taken lightly, and it will be no different in this case.
Kunzweiler said he wants the focus to be grieving the loss of the children at this time, and he doesn’t want to rush to judgment based on emotion or speculate on any charges that could be filed.
“We’re going to stick with a tried and true formula. As a prosecutor you’re supposed to look at things independently and objectively and not influenced by the anger that the public might have,” said Kunzweiler.
He said his duty is to review the facts and determine if those facts support a charge.
“My office has received hundreds of reports with the Tulsa Police Department that we are looking over at this moment and my office will undertake our responsibility on this case, and we will do that with the professionalism that’s expected.”
When Chief Franklin was asked if he had a message to the community, this is what he said, “If you have little ones, you go home and hug them. You go home and you play ball with them. You do whatever you can to be a good parent. You don’t take your eyes off of your children. Understand that you as a parent are there to ensure that individual grows up and becomes a thriving individual in our society.”