UPDATE: Audrii Cunningham Found Dead in River Following 6-Day Search
A Texas man who admitted he left home with 11-year-old Livingston girl, Audrii Cunningham, has a violent past that includes a knife attack, according to what his former co-worker told FOX 26.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, an AMBER Alert was issued by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office on February 15, after Audrii didn’t show up at her school and failed to board her bus that morning.
On Saturday, the Texas Department of Public Safety identified 42-year-old Don Steven McDougal, who lives in a trailer behind the home where Cunningham lived with her father, as a “person of interest” in her disappearance.
McDougal was arrested late Friday night and booked into the Polk County Jail on unrelated aggravated assault charges. McDougal’s criminal record includes a 2007 conviction for enticing a minor.
Now, a man who previously worked with McDougal is speaking out about a 2010 incident involving McDougal. The same year, McDougal was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after attacking Bryan.
“We worked together at a quick car in Crosby changing oil. He seemed like an alright guy. He’d come over to hang out with me and my friends every now and again, then things went south with us,” Elic Bryan III told FOX 26.
Bryan said McDougal tried to attack him with a knife after they had some drinks one night, while McDougal was intoxicated.
“He got drunk one night. We threw him out of the house, and he came back with a knife, slashed tires, tried to stab me with the knife. I had to run him off with a gun and the cops finally came out with dogs and got him,” he said.
“Terrifying, it really was. He seemed like a nice guy, but he’s got this whole other side to him that no one seemed to know about until now.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Cunningham was found dead in the Trinity River near Livingston. A press conference scheduled for this afternoon will provide more details about the circumstances surrounding the discovery.
“I wish I would have shot him, to be honest with you. That’s my one regret. Didn’t want to do it then because it would make you feel bad. But looking back, maybe I should have. With all the allegations against him, he’s not a nice guy, apparently. Something is wrong with him in the head,”
Check back for updates.
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[Feature Photo: Audrii Cunningham/Polk County Sheriff’s Office]
