Editor’s note: The Daily Memphian originally reported the missing child’s name with incorrect spelling based on MPD information. The story has been updated to reflect the correct spelling.

A neighbor that lives near where 4-year-old Sequoia Samuels went missing early Thursday says she saw a man walking with Samuels shortly after Samuels’ parents discovered she was gone.

As of Thursday evening, the Memphis Police Department had maintained there were no suspects in the case and that Samuels simply walked away from her home around 3 a.m. Thursday. However, in a 2 a.m. tweet Friday, MPD said human remains had been found in the area, and a man and woman had been detained. 

MPD public information officer Theresa Carlson also said Thursday that officers arrested a sex offender but she was unsure of a time during an interview with The Daily Memphian. 

He did not have ID and was transported to jail on violation of sex registration law, Carlson said. The sex offender case was in the same area the girl went missing.

Carlson said the cases are not connected at this time. She maintained Samuels walked away from her home.

Kathy Johnson, the neighbor, told The Daily Memphian that at around 7 a.m. Thursday, she noticed a Black man walking with Samuels out in front of her home.

“He didn’t have her by the hand, and that’s what grabbed my attention,” she said.

Later, she began to see neighbors looking for Samuels and saw police using canine units to locate her.

She said eventually police arrived at her house and showed her a picture of a man who she believed to be the one that she saw earlier with Samuels.

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She was unsure of who the officers were with, noting they were wearing vests that read “task force.”

MPD is partnering with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security to locate Samuels.

A spokesperson for TBI deferred to MPD.

SCSO was not immediately available for comment.

“When they showed me his picture, his face was familiar,” she said.

Johnson has lived in the neighborhood for six months and said the man looked like one that frequently rode his bike to a store located on North Seventh Street.

She suggested police pull footage from store cameras as evidence to find Samuels.

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Police have encouraged neighbors to keep checking their cameras for any sign of her.

“Please call CrimeStoppers because we need to ensure this baby gets home safe,” MPD said in an update Thursday evening.

The department said it is “leaving no stone unturned” and that it is using dogs, drones and ATVs to find Samuels.

A local activist, Casio Montez, who attended an MPD update Thursday, disputed the claim that there is no suspect. Montez said he and others brought someone to officers.

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“He was a person of interest because we went got him and brought him to you,” Montez said.

Montez declined to elaborate after the briefing when asked by The Daily Memphian.

The case for a 4-year-old who went missing early Thursday morning in North Memphis was elevated to endangered child status, according to the Memphis Police Department. 

Sequoia Samuels was last seen on camera leaving her home at in the 200 block of Caldwell Avenue around 3:07 a.m., MPD deputy chief Paul Wright said.

MPD elevated the search to endangered child status and has expanded its scope beyond Sequoia’s neighborhood.

“Check your yards, check your cars,” MPD spokeswoman Theresa Carlson said.

The child’s parents called police around 6:37 a.m to report her missing.

She is described as a 3-foot tall Black female wearing a light blue shirt and black pants.

She also has a “gastrointestinal tube” in her stomach, MPD said.

Caroline Hardrick, a neighbor, said she woke up around the time Samuels’ parents phoned in that she was missing and saw the police cars.

“This is a scary situation and to the family, my condolences. Please God, let her come home safe,” she said.

Neighbors in the area watched from porches as police lined the neighborhood in search of Sequoia and a helicopter flew overhead.