Home Scandal and Gossip Missing Milwaukee girls & mom found dead after amber alert

Missing Milwaukee girls & mom found dead after amber alert

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Amara Banks
Pictured missing Milwaukee mother, Amara Banks and hr two children, Zaniya Ivery, 5, and Camaria Banks
Amara Banks
Pictured missing Milwaukee mother, Amara Banks and hr two children, Zaniya Ivery, 5, and Camaria Banks

Amarah Banks missing Milwaukee mother found dead along with her two children in Memphis, TN garage. Children’s father, Arzel Ivery arrested. 

The bodies of two missing girls and their mother were found Sunday in a garage – a day after an Amber Alert was issued for the children. The boyfriend of the mother and the children’s father was taken into custody in Tennessee.

The Milwaukee Police Department said Amarah ‘Jerica’ Banks, 26, and her children Zaniya Ivery, 5, and Camaria Banks, 4, were last seen in the area of North Sherman Boulevard and West Green Tree Road Saturday around 1 a.m almost a week earlier.

Chief Morales said Banks was reported missing to MPD by family on Feb. 9. It was later determined her children, were also missing WBAY reports.

Amarah Banks
Pictured, Amarah Banks children.

Children’s father leads police to missing Milwaukee mom and daughters’ bodies: 

Police said they were contacted by law enforcement in Memphis, Tennessee, who said they had information on the father, Arzel Ivery, 25, who was last seen with Amarah and the girls

Milwaukee officers then went to Memphis. When they arrived, Ivery lead them to the garage where the three bodies were found.

It remained unclear who owns the home and garage the bodies were found in.

Ivery was arrested in connection with the case and a felony aggravated battery charge was filed against him Saturday.

Police say homicide charges were expected to be filed against Ivery, who was in custody in Memphis, Tennessee.

Domestic violence indicated as leading influence in Amarah Banks & childrens’ deaths: 

Of note, family told of Banks going missing a day after the funeral for Amarah’s one-year-old son Arzel.

‘Just get in contact with us. Let us know that you’re all right. Because it’s just so unlike you not to talk to somebody,’ said the missing woman’s mother, Valeria Skinner-Banks.

The last time Skinner-Banks spoke to and saw her 26-year-old daughter Amarah Banks and her granddaughters was last Friday evening after the funeral for Amarah’s one-year-old son Arzel, reported WITI.

Amarah — who goes by Jerica — was supposed to meet her sister for brunch Saturday morning, but never showed up.

Asked why it took a week to issue the Amber Alert, Chief Morales said certain criteria needed to be met in order for an Amber Alert to be issued — and noted foul play wasn’t an initial piece of this investigation.

Police are unsure how the victims died. Also unclear is why the father may have sought all three victim’s deaths. 

Family and authorities and community leaders intimated the issue of domestic violence as an influence leading up to the victims’ deaths.

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office was called to the scene Sunday and said autopsies were scheduled for Monday.

Arzel Ivery
Pictured, Arzel Ivery. Image via police bookings, Shelby County Jail.
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