Mystery as three-year-old girl vanishes after being tucked in for bed by her mum sparking massive FBI hunt
Mariah Woods was last seen on the night of November 26 when her mother was putting her to sleep
THE FBI is searching for a three-year-old girl who vanished after being tucked into bed by her mother.
Mariah Woods of Jacksonville, North Carolina, was last seen on the night of November 26 when her mother was putting her to sleep.
An alert for child abduction was issued after she was reported missing at 6am Monday morning, 12 reported.
Sheriff Hans Miller said the little girl's mother and her live-in boyfriend were interviewed and that officers searched their house and vehicle.
Federal agents are now going house to house around Dawson Cabin Road, where she lived, as well as trawling the woodland area behind her home.
Search dogs have been deployed to find clues but the Sheriff's department has yet to ask local civilians for help.
NCIS, Onslow Sheriff's Department and military police have been involved with the search as of 9.30am this morning.
Sheriff Miller has said officials are "working everything that can be worked to find this little girl".
He added: "We don't know what happened. It's entirely premature to try to determine what happened."
The FBI is reported to have taken over the investigation sometime on Monday evening.
"The FBI is assisting the Onslow County Sheriff's Office in the search for Mariah," an FBI spokesperson said.
"That includes the FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team or CARD team. FBI CARD team members are highly trained and experienced experts on missing children cases. CARD teams respond across the country when a child is missing."