The three Cameron, Mo., children whose father is accused of killing their older brother are in foster care, Kansas officials confirmed Thursday.

“The kids are safe,” said Arthurine Criswell, director at the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services area office in Lawrence.

Asked if the children Nicole Boothe, 9, Mitchell Boothe, 7, and Makayla Boothe, 6, were together, Criswell replied: “I can’t tell you that, but our goal in these situations is always to keep kids together.”

Criswell said social workers in Kansas were working with their counterparts in Missouri to assess other family members’ abilities to care for the children.

The Boothe family lived in Cameron for the past two years.

“We’re hoping there are family members there who are appropriate for these kids, and that we can return them to the family unit as soon as possible I’d say that about any kids,” Criswell said.

The Boothe children were with their father, Raymond Boothe, 34, Tuesday evening when he allegedly stabbed their 11-year-old, developmentally disabled brother, Levi, and left him on the Kansas Turnpike just east of the Douglas County-Leavenworth County line. The boy later was found dead.

Hours later in Lawrence, Raymond Boothe crashed his car in what police called an attempt to kill himself and his three other children. All four survived.

Lisa Boothe, Raymond Boothe’s wife and the children’s mother, had checked herself into a drug-alcohol rehabilitation program before the events of late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

“This is a horrible, horrible situation,” Criswell said.

Criswell said her office had been deluged with calls from reporters seeking information about the children.

“I don’t know that anybody will honor this, but I’d like to ask the media not to make the kids the focus of their attention,” she said. “They’re safe.”