UPDATE: Police Searching For Shaniya Davis in Wooded Area of Sanford, NC

UPDATE

By Alicia Cruz
Theblackurbantimes

Sources say that the search for 5-year-old Shaniya Davis has moved to a remote wooded area of Lee County. At this time Law enforcement and residents are searching the wooded areas and waters along Walker Road in the county (City of Sanford). A road in the county near N.C. 78 has been taped off with yellow crime-scene tape.

By 3 p.m., several all-terrain vehicles were seen around the area and later, a Highway Patrol helicopter was present. Right now, it's beginning to look like this search is turning grim. Shaniya Davis was last seen on videotape in the arms of Andrette McNeil, who is currently in police custody inside of a hotel approximately seven miles south of the scene where investigators are currently searching.

McNeill surrendered to police Friday and was charged with first-degree kidnapping. Police say he admitted to the kidnapping of the child but that he did not know where Shaniya was at the time of his arrest. McNeill's bail has been set at $100,000.

Police say an employee of the hotel on video called police to report that they saw a child matching Shaniya's description. When police arrived McNeill and the child were already gone. Authorities reviewed surveillance video and confirmed the child's identity through family members.

Last night, police arrested Shaniya’s mother, Antoinette Davis, and accused her of felony child abuse involving prostitution, interfering with a police investigation, filing a false police report and human trafficking. The mother is in jail and her bond has been set at $51,000. Arrest documents state that the 25-year-old mother has been "uncooperative" with detectives.

Davis, who is employed as a caregiver Carolina Inn at Village Green, an assisted living facility, reported her daughter missing to police on Tuesday. Her job is located on Forsythe Drive, between Village Drive and Robeson Street. No word from police on whether that area has been searched.

Davis told police that she last saw her child at 5:30 a.m. on a couch in their mobile home. When she went to check on little Shaniya later, she was gone. Davis reported her child's disappearance at 6:53 a.m. The mobile home is located in the Sleepy Hollow Mobile Home Park off Murchison Road in Fayetteville and little Shaniya had only been living with her mother for about three weeks.

Prior to that time, Shaniya lived with her father, Bradley Lockhart also of Fayetteville, for about four years. Lockhart, who described his relationship with the mother as a "one-night stand" to an Associated Press reporter said he let the child live with her mother because Davis had found a place to live and had held a job for six months.

“I just wanted her to be a mother,” he said Saturday. “She was never part of her life.” Lockhart said he and Davis never argued about him raising Shaniya and that he did not know anything about McNeill. Again, if anyone has information about this case or the whereabouts of Shaniya Davis, you are asked to telephone the police at (910) 433-1585.