The mother of Audrii Cunningham, the 11-year-old girl who was found dead in a Texas river Tuesday night, nearly a week after she disappeared, admitted in a tragic Facebook post that she had “failed her daughter.” .
Cassie Matthews posted the message before her daughter’s body was found in the Trinity River, about 10 miles from where the girl lived with her father, grandparents and other family members.
Police are preparing murder charges against a ‘family friend’, a tattooed Nazi and career criminal named Don Steven McDougal, who lives on his father’s property in a trailer.
Matthews lashed out in her post against online rumors that she lost custody of her daughter due to a failed drug test. The grieving mother said it was a rumor spread by the father of her son.
“I will make this clear once and once only: I failed my daughter by being bullied into submission by her father’s family and made to believe she was in a safe, loving, normal home with her father,” he wrote. . in a follow-up post.
McDougal had taken Audrii to the bus stop or would take her to school if she missed the bus, authorities said.
Cunningham’s father, Joshua, photographed with the man accused of killing his daughter, Don Steven McDougal. The suspect’s swastika and SS tattoos are clearly visible on his left arm.
Audrii’s family reported her missing Thursday after she did not return to her home in Livingston after school.
The girl’s mother, Cassie Matthews, asked the public for help during the six-day search for her daughter and cried as she said the loss made her feel “empty.”
Pictured: A chilling mug shot of McDougal, the last person to see the young man alive, according to police.
In other, sometimes incoherent Facebook posts, Matthews said she never “chose drugs” over her son or did drugs in front of her.
Matthews said he has “nothing to hide” as he accuses people of “spreading nonsense” online.
‘The most important thing and the only important thing for me is to find my daughter! I couldn’t care less what everyone thinks. What you think and your criteria is not to return my daughter.’
Matthews references McDougal by saying, “If your speculation were true, I would be sitting in the same boat as the man who took my baby from the family that loves her.”
In a later message, Matthews reiterates that he never lost custody of his daughter.
‘That’s my daughter and I never lost any rights to her, so as a father, I’m going to get involved in everything I want related to my daughter. “I’m tired of all the nonsense and I’m tired of being silent, scared and once again bullied into submission by people I don’t know,” she wrote.
Polk County District Attorney Shelly Sitton has confirmed that capital murder charges are being prepared against McDougal, 42. Sitton did not say whether it will become a death penalty case.
Lyons said there is “substantial evidence” in the case and that cell phone data and video helped identify search locations. He added that the Trinity River Authority lowered water levels in the river, which led to the discovery of his body.
McDougal had allegedly accompanied Audrii to school the morning she disappeared.
McDougal has a criminal record dating back to 2001 that includes convictions for two counts of luring a child.
Audrii sparked a statewide search after she went missing early Thursday morning in Livington, about an hour north of Houston, when she didn’t show up for school.
As authorities investigated Audrii’s disappearance last week, they named McDougal as a person of interest and he was arrested Friday on an unrelated assault charge.
Court records in Brazoria County, south of Houston, show McDougal pleaded no contest to two counts of felony luring a child stemming from a 2007 incident and was sentenced to two years in prison.
The sheriff said the girl’s body was taken to the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office in Houston to determine the cause of death.
Audrii’s family had reported her missing on Thursday after she did not return to her home in Livingston after school. After she was reported missing, investigators discovered that she never got on the bus to go to school that morning.
A backpack that authorities believe belonged to the boy was found Friday near the dam on Lake Livingston, one of the state’s largest lakes.
As authorities investigated Audrii’s disappearance last week, they named McDougal as a person of interest and he was arrested Friday on an unrelated assault charge.
While the search was still going on, the girl’s mother asked the public for help and said it was not like her daughter to run away or disappear.
“We have no clues, so we cling to any thread, any sign, anything in general,” he said. KPRC At the time.
“There’s no feeling you feel,” he explained. ‘You’re broken, you’re angry, you’re empty and right now I’m empty.
“I’m not going to be the same unless my baby is returned to me and neither will her family, any of us, any of her friends, any of the people she’s been connected to in the community.”
The desperate search sparked fervent online speculation and attracted multiple law enforcement agencies, while a statewide Amber Alert was lifted.
Police began searching the wooded area near the young woman’s home as she is a wildlife and nature lover, her family said.
Shortly after the search began it was determined that the disappearance was not an accident, as Lt. Craig Cummings said at a press conference that “based on the evidence we have, we understand that foul play is a factor.”