Their bodies were found four days after they were last seen.
A Missouri father and two young children were found dead on Monday, four days after they disappeared, officials said.
The bodies of Darrell Peak, 40, Kaiden Peak, 4, and Mayson Peak, 3, were discovered together within a structure in a rural area of Benton County, not far from where they were approached by a state police officer on Thursday night near Warsaw, according to statements by the Greene County Sheriff’s Office and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Family members contacted the Greene County Sheriff’s Office on Friday morning to file a missing persons report, telling deputies that Darrell Peak and his two sons were last seen near their County home Greene at around 4 pm the day before, while he was leaving with them. while armed with a pistol, he was known to charge regularly. The family told police officers that Darrell Peak’s behavior was out of the ordinary and that they have not been able to contact him since. They said he had a history of depression, but insisted he would never harm his children, according to the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.
A police officer from the Missouri State Highway Patrol stopped to help Darrell Peak, who was having car problems along US Route 65 in Benton County, north of Warsaw, at about 5:30 pm on Thursday. The officer later told investigators that Darrell Peak refused any assistance and that the children were with him and appeared to be fine, according to the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.
Soon after, a deputy from the Benton County Sheriff’s Office reported seeing a man and two children driving away from an abandoned vehicle along the highway. When the police officer turned the car around to stop them, she was unable to find them again and assumed that they had disappeared in a wooded area. A Missouri State Highway Patrol officer was later sent to check the area, but he was also unable to locate them, according to the Greene County Sheriff’s Office.
The authorities published a state report with all points for the father and two children on Friday afternoon, after the family reported them as missing. Upon hearing of the missing persons case, Missouri State Highway Patrol officers and Benton County Sheriff delegates searched the areas where the three were repeatedly observed near Warsaw the night before, according to the County Sheriff’s Office. Greene.
The Greene County Sheriff’s Office said its detectives had made “several attempts” to issue an Amber Alert to the two boys, but the case did not meet the criteria for the child abduction emergency alert. Despite the family’s belief that Darrell Peak would not harm his children, the detectives decided to file charges of kidnapping the parents against him, “hoping that this would generate additional hints and clues,” according to the sheriff’s office.
“It is very sad that the Greene County sheriff’s office announces a very tragic end to the missing person’s investigation involving Darrell, Mayson and Kaiden Peak,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement on Monday.