Family friend charged with murder of 11-year-old girl

Police have charged a family friend with murder in connection with the death and disappearance of an 11-year-old girl in Texas.

Don Steven McDougal, 42, who sometimes took Audrii Cunningham to school, was already in custody on an unrelated assault charge, officials said.

A capital murder charge was added to his booking sheet on Wednesday morning.

Audrii’s body was recovered by divers in a river north of Houston nearly a week after she went missing.

She disappeared after failing to get on her school bus on 15 February.

Mr McDougal was a friend of Audrii’s family and lived in a mobile home on their property near Lake Livingston, about 80 miles (128km) north of Houston, according to police.

Audrii’s body was discovered on Tuesday in the nearby Trinity River, about 10 miles from her family home. A backpack believed to be hers was traced in the area on Friday. She was last seen carrying a red Hello Kitty-style backpack.

Authorities in Polk County said that Audrii was supposed to catch a school bus at a stop in the area, but was never picked up. She did not appear in school that day.

Mr McDougal – who sometimes took Audrii to the bus stop, or would take her to school if she missed the bus – was held in custody on 16 February on an unrelated aggravated assault charge.

He reportedly joined in the search efforts after Audrii went missing.

Sheriff Byron Lyons told CNN: “Some of the witnesses have even said that he was in the community and knocking on doors… asking have they seen her.”

He also posted several social media comments denying involvement with her disappearance, CNN reported.

“I was there and was questioned. I am not running or hiding,” he commented on True Crime Society. “I have done everything I can to help find her. I have done nothing wrong.”

He was first considered a person of interest in the case after a witness tied his vehicle, a dark blue 2003 Chevrolet Suburban, to Audrii’s disappearance.

Mr McDougal pleaded no contest to two felony counts of enticing a child stemming from a 2007 incident near Houston and was sentenced to two years in prison, according to the Associated Press.

Police have not yet revealed how Audrii died. Her remains are being examined by the Harris County Medical Examiner.