Don Steven McDougal child sex offender person of interest in Audrii Cunningham, 11 year old Livingston, Texas girl disappearance, after failing to turn up to school on Thursday. How did a career criminal come to end up living with a missing child’s father? Desperate search for missing child.
Where is she? Is she still alive…? Texas police have taken a ‘person of interest’ into custody following the disappearance of an 11 year old girl who continues to remain un-accounted after the child failed to show up to school on Thursday, according to authorities.
Don Steven McDougal, 42, was arrested on an unrelated charge, the Texas Department of Public Safety – Southeast Texas Region said in a statement over the weekend. He was charged with aggravated assault for an unrelated incident stemming from August 2023, on Friday, jail records show.
Audrii Cunningham body found in Texas river: pervert to be charged with capital murder
Person of interest’s vehicle unaccounted for
McDougal who has a prior sex offender history and a long criminal rap going back to 2001, is ‘one of the persons of interest’ in the disappearance of 11 year old girl, Audrii Cunningham, authorities say. The sheriff’s office did not comment on how many persons of interest they have identified so far in the investigation.
Audrii was last seen near her residence at about 7 a.m. local time on Thursday in Livingston, Texas, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release early Friday morning.
‘Audrii should have caught the school bus at her neighborhood bus stop; however, school officials reported to the Sheriff’s Office that the school bus did not pick Audrii up, nor did she report to school,’ the release stated.
At the time of her disappearance, Audrii was dropped off at the bus stop by her father, Joshua Cunningham.
Authorities said in the updated statement that they believe a dark blue 2003 Chevrolet Suburban belonging to McDougal is tied to Audrii’s disappearance. They are asking for the public’s help in reporting any sightings of the vehicle on Thursday or Friday.
Prior child enticement
Come Monday morning, authorities released a statement saying that they believed Don McDougal was the last known person to see Audrii alive, the Houston Chronicle reported. To date the man has not confessed to anything.
Police also located ‘a small backpack that likely belonged to a child’ near the Lake Livingston Dam, per the statement. Audrii was carrying a bright red ‘Hello Kitty’ backpack at the time of her disappearance, but police did not specify anything further about the backpack they recovered.
McDougal has past convictions for enticement of a child, KHOU 11 reported citing court records. In 2008, McDougal was found guilty of two counts of child enticement and sentenced to two years in prison for each. Despite his convictions, McDougal at the time was not required at the time to register as a sex offender.
Audrii’s mother, Cassie Matthews, believes McDougal may be a friend of Audrii’s father and living with the Audrii’s dad, FOX 26 reported.
Matthews said that McDougal would regularly be responsible for watching Cunningham while the girl’s father was at work. She added that she did not learn of this arrangement until after her daughter disappeared.
Grave concerns regarding safety of missing 11 year old Texas girl
Of note, McDougal and Joshua Cunningham are friends on Facebook.
The sheriff’s office describes Audrii as ‘a white female with blonde hair and blue eyes. She weighs 75 pounds and is approximately 4-foot-1-inch tall.’
She was last seen wearing black pants, a black hoodie with white lettering, and black high-top tennis shoes, the sheriff’s office said.
‘Sheriff Lyons asks that anyone with information in this case to immediately contact the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, at 936-327-6810,’ the press release states. A $7,000 reward ‘for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the person responsible for Audrii’s disappearance’ is also being offered, according to the release.
Officials have said that they believe foul play is involved in the disappearance and while they are hopeful that the 11 year old will be found alive, the frigid temperatures being felt at night time in the area make that unlikely.
A reward leading to the recovery of Audrii Cunningham come Monday was increased to $10,000, KHOU reported.
The Texas Department of Public Safety sent out an Amber Alert to residents across Texas late Thursday night, according to ABC 13. The Austin American-Statesman reported that authorities believe the 11 year old is in grave or immediate danger.
