Kaylah Hunter and baby Kristian Justice.

DETROIT (WJBK) -- Detroit Police has announced it has joined forces with Michigan State Police and the FBI to find two missing children after their mother was found dead Monday.

The Michigan State Police earlier denied a Detroit police request for an Amber Alert to be issued.

"What I'm told is [The Amber Alert] didn't meet the criteria. The lapse of time initially, as you know, there was no sense of urgency based on what we knew about the missing," Detroit Police Chief James Craig said in a media briefing Tuesday afternoon. 

Detroit Police are looking for 6-year-old Kaylah Hunter and baby Kristian Justice. The body of their mother, 26-year-old Alicia Fox, was found Monday in an abandoned home on Detroit's west side.

Fox's uncle says he found the body wrapped in a blanket in the basement of an abandoned house on Penrod Street near Tireman Avenue. 

The Wayne Co. Medical Examiner says Fox was shot several times, twice in the face. 

Family members have been looking for Fox, her two children and her 28-year-old husband, Erin Justice, since May 24. The family was last seen at a home on Ardmore Street, near the Lodge Freeway.

James Smith lives on Ardmore next door to where Fox, Justice and the two missing children are said to have stayed.

Smith and others saw Justice loading up a U-Haul truck at the house in late May, which is around the same time relatives say they last saw Fox.

"I just thought they were just moving out. That's all we thought. Everybody, even the people across the street. We all saw him for two days with the U-Haul and we didn't know he was using that as a ploy to try to get rid of whatever he had done," says neighbor Phillip Blount. 

Neighbors reportedly also saw a U-Haul at the abandoned house on Penrod where Fox's body was found Monday night. 

FOX 2's Randy Wimbley reports police say at this time they do not see any connection between the two U-Hauls. 

Police are also searching for a 2004 burgundy Chevy Malibu with Michigan license plate CCR 1286.

Police say Fox's ex-boyfriend, the father of her daughter, last spoke with her June 3 via text message. Police say he has been cooperating with investigators and also say Justice is cooperating as well.

Chief James Craig said in the news conference that authorities had made contact with Justice and that "so far he has been cooperative but our investigation is still continuing."

Police have not said if they know Justice's location and are also not saying if he is considered a person of interest.    http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/story/25736877/search-for-two-children-after-mother-found-dead