The person of interest in the disappearance of 11-year-old Audrii Cunningham was supposed to drop the girl off at her Texas bus stop and was the last one seen with her before she went missing, authorities said.
Don McDougal, who has criminal history, is also a friend of the girl’s family and has been living behind their home in a trailer, the Polk County Sheriff said Monday.
Cunningham vanished last Thursday in what law enforcement believes involved foul play as they continue a desperate search for her.
McDougal, 42, left the house with Cunningham last week, but hasn’t answered whether she ever reached the bus stop, Sheriff Byron Lyons said during a press conference streamed on KLTV. The child lives in a home with her father, grandmother and other relatives.
“We do feel at this point that he was the last person who’s seen Audrii,” Lyons said, noting there were times in the past he would drop her off at the stop or take her to school when she missed the bus.
McDougal, who was taken into custody over the weekend on an unrelated charge, served a prison sentence for enticing a child, which is a third-degree felony, more than a decade ago, KPRC reported.
He was initially indicted on attempted indecency with a child for allegedly attempting sexual contact with a girl under 17 in 2007 before he pleaded to the enticement charge in 2008 in another Texas county, court docs show, according to the station.
He did not have to register as a sex offender following that case, authorities acknowledged Monday.
Cunningham’s family also didn’t know he had a criminal past that involved a girl, Lyons told NewsNation Monday.
“Talking with the family, when I spoke with them, they told me they did not know about that particular incident, knew that he, you know, had a background, but did not know that there was some type of sexual background involving children,” Lyons said on “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.”
Lyons described McDougal as a family friend who the family saw as down on his luck.
“They felt sorry for him and allowed him to move into a little travel trailer behind the house,” Lyons said on NewsNation. “And he befriended the family and, that’s how he was able to gain access.”
So far, McDougal has only occasionally cooperated with investigators and has not confessed to any crime, Lyons said during the press conference. He has taken authorities to different locations, though the sheriff didn’t provide more specifics.
He has not been charged in Cunningham’s disappearance.
So far, the only trace of Cunningham has been her backpack near Lake Livingston Dam.
“I’m hoping and praying that she’s still alive,” Lyons said. “I am not giving up hope that we will be able to bring Audrii home.”
