Two small children found safe in rural Morgan Co.

The search for two small children has ended in Morgan County just north of the Lake of the Ozarks. Sheriff Jim Petty confirmed a 7 year-old girl and her 9 year-old brother were found playing at a friend’s house around 5 p.m. Thursday near Stover, about an hour west of Jefferson City.

The pair walked away from home after an argument Thursday morning, cutting through some woods and crossing Highway 135.

Morgan County deputies, firefighters from Stover and Ivy Bend and agents from the Missouri Department of Conservation searched for most of the day. A helicopter from the state highway patrol also helped.

Sheriff Petty confirms the children are adopted, and their adoptive parents have been previously convicted of child abuse. But the sheriff interviewed both children and does not believe abuse is involved in this latest incident. They returned home Thursday to their parents.