Missing NC toddler may have entered Walmart after disappearing

Authorities in North Carolina are continuing their search for a missing 3-year-old girl, and are looking into whether she’s with an adult.

They’re specifically figuring out if Mariah Woods walked into a Walmart about 45 miles east of her home the morning after she was last seen.

The FBI released surveillance footage from the Walmart, showing a girl enter the superstore with an unidentified woman.

Mariah was last seen Sunday night at her home in Jacksonville, N.C. An Amber alert was issued when her mother couldn’t find her Monday morning.

The surveillance stills, released early Wednesday, show a blond girl wearing a grey shirt and pink sneakers walking into a Walmart in Morehead City, N.C., at about 9:30 a.m. Monday.

The woman seen with the girl has dark hair, and had on a yellow drawstring backpack.

Police have been frantically searching for Mariah, who normally wears orthopedic foot braces, since Monday’s amber alert.

Investigators want to talk with “anyone who has had contact with the family” since Sunday, FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Stanley Meador said at a Tuesday news conference.

A Marine Corps helicopter, state highway troopers and neighboring law enforcement departments have also pitched into the effort, Onslow County Sheriff Hans Miller said.

Mariah’s mother, Kristy Woods, earlier this week implored whoever had her daughter to please bring the young girl home.

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