Mother of missing girl, 11, pleads for her return as suspect arrested
A Texas mother has issued an urgent plea amidst the ongoing search for her 11-year-old daughter who has been missing for five days as a suspect is arrested.
Cassie Matthews, the mother of missing , who disappeared on Thursday prompting an Amber Alert being sent out, made a public appeal for her daughter’s return on Friday, a day after her daughter vanished.
Matthews, from Livingston, said: “We would like to have her come home, it’s not like her to just run off or disappear, she has a lot of loving family, she has so many people that love her and adore her. We have no leads so we are grasping at any string, any signs, anything in general.”
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Audrii Cunningham lived at home with her grandmother and father (KHOU)Matthews added: “Search began in the wood line behind her home because it leads to the state park, now she is known to like to explore the woods, she likes to look at the little animals.”
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Matthews’ claim that the search for her daughter started behind the home where Cunningham lives with her father but that has not been verified by law enforcement. According to Matthews, her daughter stays with her father and her grandmother.
A suspect, Don Steven McDougal, has been apprehendedMatthews said: “Hard is an understatement, this is the stuff you see on TV and you can only imagine what the family and the parents are going through and there’s not words for it. There is not one feeling you feel, its a roller coaster, you are broken, you are mad, you are empty and right now I am empty. She has so many opportunities ahead of her, and she deserves every right to be able to reach those opportunities.
“I am not going to be the same unless my baby is returned to me and neither is her family, any of us, any of her friends, any of the people that she has been connected to in the community.”
Audrii has been missing for nearly a week (FOX 26)Spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public safety, Lieutenant Cummings expressed thanked everyone involved in the search efforts.
Lieutenant Cummings said that Don Steven McDougal, 42, of Livingston, is currently the main person of interest in Cunningham's disappearance, and he was arrested on Friday for an unrelated aggravated assault charge.
Fox26 reports that, even though he hasn't been charged in the case of Cunningham's disappearance, detectives think something bad has happened. McDougal has a long list of past crimes starting from 2001, as shown by court records. His crimes range from theft to evading, including in 2008, two counts of enticement of a child.. Court papers show McDougal was given two years for each crime.
The police haven't confirmed McDougal's link to the case. But Audrii's mum, Cassie Matthews, thinks McDougal is friends with Audrii's dad. She says Audrii's dad let McDougal live on their land with them and look after Audrii, all things she only found out after her daughter went missing.
Cassie Matthews issued an urgent plea for information (KPRC2)Neighbo Denise Kolojaco told Fox26: "I went there one day, and he was there. It was a hi and bye situation, so I don't know."
Kolojaco said she always used to see Audrii walk to the bus stop every morning at 7am and the little girl would stop to pet her dogs but on Thursday morning, the little girl did not walk by.
Audrii's familiy says she left for the bus stop at 7am on the Thursday and the walk between the little girl's home to the bus stop is just over half a mile, with Kolojaco's home being at just about halfway. This has sparked fears that she disappeared somewhere between her home and Kolojaco's.
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Lt Cummings urged the public is urged to report any sightings of McDougal's 2003 Chevrolet Suburban to the Polk County Sheriff's Office and Polk County Crimestoppers offered a $7,000 reward for tips.
Don Steven McDougal (KHOU)Adding that there is some evidence of foul play, Lt Cummings said the primary focus remains on locating. According to previous accounts from Lt. Cummings, the 11-year-old was dropped off at her usual bus stop at 7 am on Thursday ahead of her school commute. However, Cunningham did not arrive to school and was not on the bus. Her family subsequently reported her missing at around 5:30 p.m. on the same day.
Authorities paused the search for the girl on Friday night, planning to resume efforts near the dam at Lake Livingston on Saturday morning. Police are yet to share any other locations of interest.
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