The mother of slain Texas girl Audrii Cunningham says she’s sickened by the man her daughter thought of as an “uncle,” who’s now behind bars for murder.
On Tuesday’s “Crime Stories” episode, Cassie Matthews said she knew almost immediately something was wrong when the father of 11-year-old Audrii called her and asked if she had seen their child. Matthews explained that she hadn’t seen her daughter in a while and that the child’s father, Josh Cunningham, had custody.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Steven Don McDougal, who lived in a trailer behind a Livingston home where Audrii lived with her father, admitted that he agreed to take Audrii to her school bus on the morning of February 15.
On February 20, police found her body in the Trinity River. A criminal complaint indicated that she had a large rock tied around her with a rope. Police found her Hello Kitty backpack downstream from where they located her body.
According to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, Audrii died from “homicidal violence” and blunt force trauma to the head.
The night before her appearance, McDougal contacted Matthews “out of the blue” to tell her that he would be taking Audrii to school the following day, calling himself the child’s babysitter. Then, following her disappearance, McDougal helped search for Audrii and purportedly feigned concern as he went door-to-door, asking neighbors if they had seen her.
“You killed my daughter and then you want to search for her? It’s sick,” Matthews told Grace.
Matthews is now pushing for justice after learning her daughter was allowed to live in a home with a convicted felon, who was never required to register as a sex offender, despite a previous conviction.
“I don’t understand how it happened at all. I don’t understand how they [the father’s family] put so much effort keeping her from me but they couldn’t put the same effort into knowing the people they had around her,” she said.
McDougal was arrested and booked into the Polk County Jail on unrelated aggravated assault charges earlier this month. Several days later, he was charged with capital murder and ordered to remain behind bars without bail, in connection with Audrii’s death.
Meanwhile, Matthews says she is doing her best to cope with the tragedy and push for justice. Her days are filled with thoughts of her child and what happened to her.
“I don’t sleep. I just sit there and I watch videos and look at pictures. I read all of these comments on the Internet and that’s all I can do. All I can do is just put all of my thoughts into this in general. I can hear someone sitting right next to and they’re talking to me and I don’t hear a word that they say,” she said through tears.
“I’m so scared that this is going to be a depression that I can’t get myself out of.”
Listen to the full episode below.
