Bryan Police Announce Remains Of A Young Child Found Outside The Home Of A Missing Three Year Old Girl

Photo of Rayven Shields from Bryan police.

Bryan police has announced finding the decomposed remains of a young child.

Police chief Eric Buske says the remains, detected Friday night with the assistance of cadaver dogs, were taken to the Travis County medical examiners office.

The remains were found in a garden outside the home of three year old Rayven Shields, who according to Buske, was last seen in mid-June.

The chief says this is now a murder investigation.

Shields mother, Virginia Adams, remains in jail following her arrest earlier this week on a charge of not telling police and CPS the whereabouts of her daughter after the state received legal custody.

Click below for comments from Eric Buske.

Listen to “Bryan police chief Eric Buske news conference about discovering remains of a young child” on Spreaker.

Prepared remarks from Eric Buske:

On Monday, July 30th, at 5:15 p.m., Bryan Police Department received a request from Child Protective Services to assist in locating 3 year old Rayven Shields, who was supposed to be living with her mother Virginia Adams.

Child Protective Services was attempting to check on Rayven’s well being. Her mother was not cooperative and told inconsistent stories about where Rayven was. At that time, Adams still had legal custody of Rayven. The Bryan Police spent the entire day looking for Rayven, including searching her residence at 4037 E. State Highway 21.

On Tuesday, July 31st, Bryan Police Detectives continued to search for Rayven and Virginia continued to provide different stories concerning Rayven’s whereabouts or refused to say where she was. Also on Tuesday, Child Protective Services obtained a Court order to remove Rayven from Adams custody.

On Wednesday, Child Protective Services served the court order on Ms. Adams. Adams still refused to cooperate with the search to locate Rayven. Bryan PD arrested Adams for Interfering with Child Custody. Detectives continued search for Rayven, following every possible lead. At that time we also entered Rayven into the Center for Missing and Exploited Kids, which is a national organization which acts to assist agencies working on missing or endangered children.

On Thursday, detectives continued the search for Rayven and continued to interview family and friends and Virginia Adams. No additional information was found.

On Friday August 3rd, we continued the search for Rayven throughout the day. On Friday, a cadaver dog from Search Dog Network was brought to the Hwy 21 address. It alerted that there were possible remains. At about 7:30 p.m. we served a search warrant 4037 SH 21. This search focused on the garden area, based on the fact that the cadaver dogs had indicated over the garden. We conducted a meticulous excavation of the garden.

Buried in the garden, we located decomposed remains that are consistent with the size of a young child. At this time our efforts are focused on positively identifying the remains and the murder investigation. It may take some time to positively identify the decomposed remains.

The Bryan Police Department is working closely with the District Attorney’s Office as this is now an active murder investigation.

At this time we are not naming any suspects, however we believe the suspect had to be someone that was close to her. There is no indication that the community is in any danger.

This is a very tragic outcome and not what we had hoped for. Our officers working this case are heartbroken as is our entire community.

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