The FBI is joining the search for two teenage sisters from northern Michigan who disappeared in late June.
Tamara Perez, 15, and her sister, Iris Perez, 14, were reported missing on June 28 after vanishing from their adoptive parents’ home in Prudenville, an unincorporated community in Roscommon County near the shores of Houghton Lake.
The Roscommon County Sheriff’s Office initially began investigating the disappearance of the girls, with the FBI’s Detroit field office joining the search this week.
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The girls had moved from Florida to Michigan with their adoptive parents in March after being found in the Port St. Lucie, Florida home of their biological mother, whose had lost custody rights, according to the FBI.
Surveillance video from around the time of the Perez sisters’ disappearance, coupled with the account of one juvenile witness, has led investigators to believe the sisters may have been traveling in a newer white Jeep Cherokee at some point.
On the day they disappeared, the sisters had been playing outside with another child who reported seeing them climb into the SUV and leave, Detective Lt. Angela Ackley with the sheriff’s office told USA TODAY on Tuesday.
The FBI had said that a neighbor had spotted the girls between 7:30 and 8 p.m. headed toward nearby woods the day they went missing.
“Our understanding is there was a vehicle seen leaving the area after the girls left the view of their neighbor,” Special Agent Mara R. Schneider with the FBI’s Detroit Field Office told USA TODAY. “We can’t say what happened after they left their neighbor’s sight.”
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The girls also have family in Winchester, Tennessee.
Both Tamara and Iris Perez are Black and the FBI said Iris Perez has a distinctive star tattoo on the left side of her neck.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the Perez sisters can call the Roscommon County Sheriff’s Office in Michigan at 989-275-5101 or contact any FBI field office. Anonymous tips can be submitted at tips.fbi.gov
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected].
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