A man in Texas is facing a capital murder charge after the corpse of missing 11-year-old Audrii Cunningham was found in the Trinity River on Tuesday, authorities said.
Don Steven McDougal, 42, was charged by Polk County authorities after his jailing on an unrelated charge of aggravated assault, according to a report.
Cunningham was last seen on Thursday at about 7 a.m. in the East Texas town of Livingston, roughly 70 miles northeast of Houston.
School officials reported that she failed to arrive at school and had not been on the bus.
The child’s body was found Tuesday in the Trinity River near U.S. Highway 59, and authorities reported they are processing “mounds and mounds of information,” including community videos, cellphone data, and interviews, according to Polk County Sheriff Byron Lyons.
“The information that we have gathered in this criminal investigation is substantial,” Lyons said.
Cunningham’s body was sent to the County Medical Examiner’s Office, but an official cause of death has yet to be released, and the Polk County District Attorney Shelly Sitton will review the autopsy before seeking a death penalty against McDougal, the report noted.
“Until we get all the evidence and all the autopsy reports, we’re going to have to hold and work with law enforcement to determine what is the best solution to this case,” Sitton said.
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“If the evidence supports, that is something that we’re going to look in to.”
McDougal, an alleged friend of Cunningham’s father, has a criminal history, including enticement of a child in 2008 and over a dozen arrests.
