Slain Ky. 4-Year-Old Chloe Darnell Remembered by Teen Sister: 'All I Needed Was Her Company and I Felt OK' (Exclusive)

Investigators tell PEOPLE they are searching for Chloe’s mom, Tammy Manriquez, in order to make a positive identification of the child’s body

Chloe Isabella Nicole Darnell became the eighth child of Tammy Manriquez after she was born in a Kentucky driveway.

“When I held her for the first time, she grabbed my finger with her tiny little hand and squeezed it with the biggest smile on her face,” Chloe’s teenage sister, Gabby Manriquez, tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview. “That day I was the happiest I had been in a while.”

But months after Chloe’s 2019 birth, her mother and father moved to Louisville, leaving infant Chloe behind at the home where the couple had been staying, monitored by county welfare workers, according to family members who spoke exclusively with PEOPLE.

Related: Missing Ky. 4-Year-Old Found Dead, Guardian Cousin and Boyfriend Charged with Murder

Tammy’s father already had custody of her other children, including Gabby, and with his declining health and the recent passing of his wife, that year a judge eventually issued custody of the newborn to an adult cousin, Brittany Slaughter, who did not have kids of her own and did not have a criminal record, according to the Whitley County Sheriff’s Department and family members interviewed by PEOPLE.

Now, law enforcement alleges Brittany and her boyfriend, Adam Hayes, killed the child authorities believe to be Chloe whose remains were found buried in a makeshift grave in Daniel Boone National Forest in Eastern Kentucky last week, Dave Lassiter, the lead investigator in Chloe’s homicide case, tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview.

Brittany, 24, and Hayes, 34, are each charged with aggravated murder, abuse of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence, according to the Whitley County District Court. (Automatic not guilty pleas were entered for the couple, according to the court.)

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE's free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

It isn't the first time that Hayes has been connected to a child abuse case, Campbell County Sheriff Wayne Barton tells PEOPLE. On Christmas Day 2009, Hayes was charged with felony aggravated child abuse and neglect, as well as charges for allegedly assaulting a police officer and for allegedly running away when officers tried to arrest him, according to Barton. And in the case closed in 2010, Hayes was convicted for felony assault involving a child in the Tennessee county, which borders Whitley, Ky, according to investigator Lassiter.

Hayes has also been charged in a separate case – stemming from Chloe’s death investigation – on charges of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, possession of marijuana and trafficking heroin, according to the court. (An automatic not guilty plea was also entered for Hayes in this case.)

Investigators allege Hayes was running a drug operation inside the family home where the couple and Chloe were living, Lassiter says, adding that in a search of the home last week, investigators found multiple scales and paraphernalia “associated with drug trafficking.”

When Did Chloe Die?

Chloe’s family reported the child and Brittany missing November 15, according to the sheriff’s department.

But Tammy’s sister, Jessica Gearheart, said in a Facebook post, which another family member later further explained to PEOPLE, that she now believes Chloe had been dead for much longer and that Brittany “manipulated all of us” into believing she was alive perhaps months after her death.

Jessica and Brittany texted nearly every day, says Jessica’s mother-in-law, Tricia Hess, who has been designated as the family spokesperson and started a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses and to get Chloe’s seven siblings — most of whom live in Ohio — to the funeral in Williamsburg, Ky.

Then, according to Hess, two weeks before the body that authorities believe to be Chloe’s was found, Brittany called Jessica saying that she was applying for food stamps and cash assistance and needed Chloe’s medical card for the application.

When Jessica asked after Chloe, according to Hess, Brittany spoke of her in present tense, saying there was a plan in place for a neighbor to watch the child once she found a job.

But now the family believes that Chloe was already dead — perhaps for months — at the time of that conversation, says Hess, noting that investigators have told them that Chloe’s body has been taken to Texas for further evaluation because the child’s remains were so disintegrated. (Investigator Lassiter confirmed the out-of-state testing, the decomposition of the child's remains and the likelihood that Chloe had been dead for some time.)

“She was basically just bones," Hess says.

In her Facebook post, Jessica says that she had believed Brittany was missing until Brittany was arrested, when, she says, Brittany called her, saying she was scared because law enforcement had shown up.

“She was crying and I could barely, barely hear her,” Jessica recalled in the Facebook post, noting that she asked a relative for her location, called law enforcement and a short time later Brittany was arrested.

Brittany’s public defender, John Loughrin, did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

Joshua Miller, one of Hayes’s two public defenders representing him in both cases, declined to comment.

Challenges to Identifying Body

A preliminary hearing in the case is slated for Monday, Nov. 27 — by which point, Whitley County Sheriff Bill Elliotte tells PEOPLE, his department expects to have a preliminary autopsy, and, he hopes, DNA evidence that would positively identify Chloe as the body found in the woods.

Law enforcement recently tracked down the man listed as Chloe’s father on her birth certificate at a residence in Louisville, KY, lead investigator Lassiter says, noting that the man voluntarily allowed Kentucky State Police to take a swab of his DNA Tuesday.

But, Lassiter says, in a case like this, the man's DNA is not necessarily enough to match the remains to Chloe. And while the man believes himself to be Chloe's father, he never took a paternity test, says Lassiter.

“That’s why Tammy is vital to us,” Lassiter says. “It is vital that we find her. I feel that we found Chloe, but the DNA — the science — we need that, we need Tammy. I’d really like to get that DNA.”

As of publication, the sheriff’s office has not located Tammy, who Lassiter says he believes to be living in Louisville. Lassiter believes Tammy may be homeless and unaware of her daughter's presumed death.

Grieving Sister Speaks Out

“I’m so hurt that Chloe’s not here with us [anymore]," 15-year-old sister Gabby tells PEOPLE. “How could anyone do something like this to such a sweet, innocent baby? She didn’t deserve any of this. My heart breaks more and more everyday knowing I will never hear her voice again, or see her precious little face again. All I needed was her company and I felt OK.”

Recalling Chloe’s favorite Minnie Mouse stuffed animal that she carted everywhere, her “playful” attitude and her affinity for scary things that kept her siblings from ever successfully spooking their baby sister, Gabby adds that Chloe loved meeting new people: “Give her not even five minutes and she’d be so comfortable with you,” the sister recalls. “She loved everybody.”

But in Chloe’s final months, investigators say the child became more and more isolated.

Hayes and Brittany had lived together on-and-off, between fights for a year in the Whitley trailer searched by law enforcement, a source who knew Hayes for many years and lives in the area tells PEOPLE.

The source recalls two fights between the couple on the property between October and November.

“I didn’t even know a child was inside the home,” he adds of witnessing the fights. “But knowing that now rocks me to the bitter core. If I could go back two weeks ago, a month, more — I’d go back and try to prevent what happened to Chloe in some kind of a way.”

Kentucky residents have traipsed to the wooded area — locally known as Devil’s Creek — where investigators removed a little girl’s remains, he says.

They have left in her place a green and white polka dot cross, a miniature doll, a stuffed animal and a ring of yellow roses.

Anyone with information involving this case, is urged to call the Whitley County Sheriff's Department at 606-549-6017.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.