The body of missing 11-year-old Audrii Cunningham, the Livingston girl at center of an AMBER Alert, has been found in Trinity River on Tuesday, according to KPRC 2 sources and a family friend of the girl.
During Tuesday’s news conference, Polk County Sheriff Byron Lyons confirmed investigators found Audrii’s body at the Trinity River Boat Ramp off U.S. 59 after lowering water levels. The AMBER Alert has officially been discontinued.
Dear Lion Country, It is with tremendous sadness that I inform you of the death of our LISD 5th-grader, Audrii...Audrii’s body will be transported to the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office to determine what happened to her and the cause of death. A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety said this case has now turned into a criminal investigation. Several emergency vehicles were at the scene Tuesday morning, including officials from Liberty County, The Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas EquuSearch, and a dive unit from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. JUST IN: An active crime scene has now been set up where search crews having been looking for 11 yr old Audrii Cunningham. DPS says they plan to provide an update this afternoon. We will keep you postedLyons said they were able to locate Audrii’s body with the substantial amount of evidence provided by witnesses’ cellphone video, several points of interest provided by the person of interest and surveillance videos. He said investigators also used evidence collected from cellphone analysis and information they received from 42-year-old Don Steven McDougal. “We start talking about how we link in evidence to McDougal and linking evidence to this case. We want to be very careful of how we do that and will feel safe to say there is substantial evidence through the evidence that we’ve gathered,” Lyons said. “And so that evidence was even gathered by the wonderful witnesses and wonderful folks out there in the social media who sent those videos, who sent those pictures. So that even that evidence helped us to be able to come up with these locations, as well as the evidence from cellphone videos.”was reported missing on Thursday, Feb. 15, and investigators said Don Steven McDougal was likely the last person who saw her alive that day.disappearance, although investigators said they haven’t ruled anyone out as a suspect. He is currently in the Polk County Jail on an unrelated charge.last Thursday morning, but he hasn’t said whether or not she made it to her school bus. But the sheriff said he provided some clues that led to them finding her body.TIMELINE: What we know about ‘person of interest’ in case of missing 11-year-old Audrii Cunningham “He was a friend of the family, a friend of the father, and he was allowed to live there in a trailer behind the house,” the sheriff said. McDougal, who has a lengthy criminal history, was previously convicted of enticing a child in Brazoria County, records obtained by KPRC 2 show. In March 2007, McDougal allegedly attempted to engage in sexual contact with a girl under the age of 17. According to a grand jury indictment, McDougal removed another female from the bed where the victim was sleeping before he got in the bed with the victim and “ her pajama bottoms and panties down.” Audrii Cunningham disappearance: Person of interest spent time in prison for sexual contact with young girlWhat’s next? Polk County District Attorney Shelly Sitton said that based on the evidence that has been gathered, they are preparing an arrest warrant for McDougal. Capital murder charges against McDougal are pending as the District Attorney’s Office waits on the medical examiner’s office results. “Based on all the evidence that law enforcement has collected, they are in the process of preparing the appropriate arrest warrants for Don Steven McDougal at this time,” Sitton said. “We believe the appropriate arrest warrant is going to be for capital murder in the death of Audrey Cunningham. He is currently still in jail under an unrelated felony charge here. I understand that this is a very difficult time for Audrey’s family and for our community.” Investigators release photo of vehicle in connection to missing Livingston 11-year-old Audrii CunninghamEmmy award-winning journalist born and raised in Alabama. College football fanatic and snow cone lover! Passionate about connecting with the community to find stories that matter.
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