Father arrested after four sisters disappear from Alabama

A 34-year-old man, Clifton Christopher Buchanan, was arrested after his four daughters disappeared last Thursday.

The sisters—Aaliyah Grace, 12, Isabella Jane, 9, Lacey Nicole, 7, and Gracelyn Hope, 2—went missing from a small town in Talladega County.

However, they were found safe in Clayton County, Georgia, on Friday afternoon, according to a report in The Independent. Their father was arrested in Etowah County, Alabama, in connection with the disappearance of his four daughters.

According to authorities, the girls vanished from their home soon after a court granted temporary custody of the four girls to the Alabama Department of Human Resources.

The local authorities issued a missing persons' alert for the four girls as they were unable to find either the children or their father.

The girls were eventually found following hours of search operations and are safe. They were found in a car at a McDonald's in Clayton County, where they were seen eating with an unidentified adult.

The girls' mother passed away two years ago. According to a GoFundMe page set up by their maternal grandparents, the girls had also lived with their aunt and uncle in Tennessee after their mother's death in 2020.

Their grandparents had to then set up the page to raise money for their basic needs, such as clothing, toiletries, food, and school supplies.

The authorities started investigating the "family situation" in October, forcing child welfare officials to seek custody of the children. It is still unclear when they started living with their father again and what forced the authorities to look into the situation,

Authorities believe that Buchanan was trying to transfer them to a different location because he was about to lose custody of his children. Meanwhile, their father has been arrested for "interference with custody." He is being held without bond in the Talladega County Jail.