Sex Offender Entrusted to Care for 11-Year-Old Audrii Cunningham Pleads Guilty to Murdering Her, Learns Fate

A Texas man has admitted to kidnapping and killing 11-year-old Audrii Cunningham, who was found dead in a river nearly a year ago after she briefly went missing. 

Don Steven McDougal “has accepted responsibility for his actions in the kidnapping and murder of Audrii Cunningham” and will spend the rest of his life in prison without possibility of parole or appeal, the Polk County District Attorney’s Office announced on Friday, Jan. 17.

McDougal was charged with capital murder on Feb. 21, a day after Audrii’s body was found tied to rocks in the Trinity River, about 76 miles from her home in Livingston, Texas, authorities said at the time. 

Audrii, a fifth-grade student, was reported missing after she did not show up to school on Feb. 15.

Dr. Brent Hawkins, superintendent of the Livingston Independent School District in Texas, told PEOPLE that McDougal had brought her to school as recently as three days prior to her disappearance.

McDougal, who had prior convictions for enticing a minor, was a family friend of Audrii’s father who lived on his property and helped search for the girl following her disappearance.

At Friday’s hearing, Audrii’s family members fondly remembered the slain girl and spoke about their feelings of betrayal by McDougal, Click2Houston reported.

“She gave my family purpose, and you stole that from me,” Audrii’s father Josh Cunningham said in court.

“You took away the life of our little angel. Your punishment in this life will never fit the crime,” her grandmother Tabitha Munsch said. “Nothing will ever bring her back, and that’s your fault. … May you rot in hell.”

Audrii’s grandfather Philip Munschsaid said McDougal was “a monster pretending to be her friend” who “violated her trust,” per Click2Houston.

Philip added that Audrii was a “talented and happy” child who “brightened the lives of all around her.”

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In its statement last week, the DA’s office said McDougal was determined to be ineligible for the death penalty due to a state law that limits its use for anyone with “significant documented Intellectual and developmental disabilities.” 

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