A reward of $10,000 has been offered by the FBI in relation to a missing Davenport, Iowa girl, who hasn’t been seen for two weeks now, FBI Special Agent in Charge Kristi Johnson announced on Wednesday.
Johnson explained at a press conference the reward will be for “anyone who has information that assists law enforcement in finding 10-year-old Breasia Terrell or leads to the arrest of anyone involved in her disappearance.”
“Because of the nature of our work, many won’t see the FBI working this investigation,” Johnson said. “We’ve been here from the beginning, thanks to the commitment of our partner, the Davenport Police Department, to use all the resources available to them to find Breasia and bring the person responsible for her disappearance to justice.”
Davenport Police Chief Paul Sikorski identified a person of interest as 47-year-old Henry E. Dinkins of Davenport at a press conference last week. He was taken into custody on July 10 on separate charges of sex offender violations, a class D felony, after having contact with minors and violating the terms of his parole by failing to give authorities his latest address.
Dinkins has not been charged in Terrell’s disappearance, though the Amber Alert issued on July 15 described him as the abductor. He is on the state sex offender registry for a third-degree sexual abuse conviction in 1990.
The girl’s mother, Aishia Lankford, is convinced the answers are with Dinkins, as she was last seen spending the night at his apartment, reported WQAD. Dinkins is the father of Terrell’s half-brother.
Lankford said she understands now that she made a mistake to trust Dinkins, but is still confident that her little girl will come home. Chief Sikorski said Wednesday that he remains the “main focus” of the investigation.
Sikorski said earlier this week there is no longer a need for volunteers to help search for the girl within the Clinton County area at this time as investigators continue their search and focus their resources on “pursuing leads that have been developed” and provided to detectives by the community.
Additional details surrounding the leads received earlier this week were not provided by officials at the time. But the police chief said the focus of the search for Terrell remains in the Scott and Clinton counties in eastern Iowa.
“We all want to find her alive,” Sikorski said. “That is what our intent is as we continue with the investigation.”
“We are incredibly grateful to the community to assist in the search for Breasia,” he added. “Several hundred community members responded to our call for volunteers to search, showing the care and compassion of our community.”
Police described Terrell as an African American girl and was last seen wearing an oversized white t-shirt, flip flops, and shorts. She is 4 feet 5 inches tall, weighs about 75 pounds, and has black hair and brown eyes.
The investigation still continues “full steam ahead” and also includes the FBI and state and local agencies, Sikorski said.
The search last weekend was supported by more than 150 law enforcement personnel, who used aerial support, according to a police release.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.