Missing Brooklyn Park girl found, father remains in custody

BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. (KMSP) - A three-year-old girl who was missing for six months is safe Thursday night after a complicated investigation into her father, who was deemed unfit to be around children back in 2015. 

“This has been since May, that’s a long time that’s very concerning,” said Brooklyn Park Chief Deputy Mark Bruley.

Until 7:30 p.m. Thursday night, three-year-old Try’Reshia Chamberlain was missing for the last six months. Before she was turned over to authorities, the toddler was last seen with 30-year-old Trimell Chamberlain, her biological father who shared custody of Try'Reshia with her maternal aunt. But Chamberlain failed to honor their joint custody. 

While Try'Reshia was missing, police learned Chamberlain also has 10 other children, but three years ago, juvenile court deemed him unfit to be around any of them. Although it's unclear why the ruling was made, investigators wonder how Chamberlain ever obtained even partial custody of Try'Reshia.

“If he wasn’t unfit, we wouldn’t have seven detectives working on this case,” said Bruley. “It would be a dad who just wants to be with his children type thing.”

On Oct. 31, a family court judge revoked Chamberlain’s parental rights. On Monday, a warrant led police to the 9200 block of James Avenue North, where he was arrested.

“He has numerous outstanding warrants in several counties that he’s being held on and he’s also been charged with deprivation of parental rights as the court has ordered for him to turn over custody of the child to the aunt and he has not done so,” said Bruley.

What troubled Deputy Chief Bruley the most was Chamberlain’s refusal to cooperate or simply tell police where Try'Reshia was.

“He did indicate in some way that he believes he’s the father of the child and has no obligation to cooperate with law enforcement to turn over the child,” said Bruley.

Chamberlain's bail has been set at $5,000. Conditions of his release include staying away from Try'Reshia. Now that she's been turned over to police by a friend of the father, officers tell Fox 9 Try'Reshia appears healthy and unharmed. Their investigation into where she's been for the last six months will continue.