Missing 11-year-old Audrii Cunningham was found underwater tied to a large rock — with a rope similar to one found in the suspect’s car, authorities said in support of capital murder charges filed Wednesday.
The Texas girl’s body was found Tuesday by a dive team searching the Trinity River in a rural area north of Houston, five days after she was last seen Thursday with Don McDougal, 42, a family friend who lived in their camper, according to charging documents shared by KPRC 2.
Once pulled out, cops found “a large rock tied to the child victim’s body,” the docs said.
“The rope used was consistent with rope that was observed in McDougal’s vehicle on a traffic stop two days prior,” the document noted of the suspect held on separate charges.
Video footage and cell phone data also put McDougal “at three locations of interest,” including at the river where the youngster’s body was finally found, the document said.
It was cited as “sufficient evidence” that “McDougal committed the offense of capital murder.”
Cunningham vanished after leaving home with McDougal to get her school bus on Thursday, and was reported missing when she did not turn up at school that morning. Officials believe she was murdered that day.
McDougal – whose lengthy record included time in prison for enticing a child – “was a friend of the Cunningham family and resided on the family property in a camp over camper” and “had access to the interior of the child victim’s home,” the document stated.
McDougal was arrested on an unrelated assault charge on Friday, and was still in Polk County Jail by the time Cunningham’s body was found, records showed.
He is now being held without bond, and it is unclear if he has an attorney.
During the initial search, Cunningham’s mother, Cassie Matthews, wrote on Facebook that she had “failed” her daughter – and slammed critics for “spreading bulls–t.”
“I’ll make this clear one time and one time only, I failed my daughter by being bullied into submission by her father’s family and being made to believe she was in a safe, loving, and normal home with her father,” Matthews wrote in the since-deleted post.
In their radio exchanges when Cunningham was first reported missing on Thursday evening, police said that “the mom does not have custody of her, never had custody of her, and has made threats recently to kidnap her,” KPRC 2 noted.
Audrii Cunningham’s cause of death is still undetermined pending an autopsy by the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office, according to the charging documents.