Abducted 4-year-old found murdered, older sister alive as 'small animal cages' discovered at crime scene linked to suspect in mom's violent death: Sheriff

A photo (left) shows the moment Daniel Callihan was arrested in Mississippi on June 13, 2024 (Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office, Louisiana), (right inset) 4-year-old Erin Brunett (AMBER Alert photo) and her mother Callie Brunett (as seen on her Facebook page)

Law enforcement in Mississippi and Louisiana provided a chilling update in the suspected abductions of two young girls from a home where their mother was “brutally” killed, allegedly by a man she used to date.

Erin Brunett, just four years old, was found murdered Thursday in the woods behind a residence in Jackson, Miss., a crime scene possibly linked to “human trafficking,” the Louisiana-based Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office and Mississippi-based Jackson Police Department have said.

U.S. Marshals’ shocking discoveries of Erin’s death and her alive but injured 6-year-old sister were made after authorities arrested 36-year-old Daniel Callihan, a man also suspected of murdering the girls’ mother, 35-year-old Callie Brunett, at her Loranger, La., home.

The story from investigators so far is that Callie Brunett and her children were last seen on Tuesday but that an Amber Alert was not issued until Thursday, hours after Callie was found dead that morning in her mobile home by her father — one day after the man reported the mother missing locally . Callie’s father reported that the children were gone and so was his daughter’s black 2012 Chrysler 200.

Daniel Callihan mug shot (Rankin County Sheriff’s Office)

When a license plate reader tracked down the car, the search for the missing girls led multiple federal and local agencies some two hours-plus north of Loranger, across state lines into Mississippi, and the end result was tragic.

More Law&Crime coverage: Daughter of human trafficking survivor shot to death in location where her mother was trafficked 25 years ago

In remarks reported by local Fox affiliate WVUE , Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade said that investigators not only found the 4-year-old girl murdered by a “coward,” but also uncovered evidence that suggested Erin and her older sister were located at a crime scene which “may be the place where there has been some human trafficking done.”

“We see cages, small animal cages,” Wade reportedly said. “This is very, very disturbing to me as a police chief and as a father to witness and see what I saw.”

Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards reportedly said separately that Callihan “was not a complete stranger” to the Brunetts, since he used to date Callie.

“What would lead him to kill Callie and abduct the children, I simply can’t say,” the sheriff reportedly said.

But Callihan may not have acted alone, authorities have since revealed, as they conduct a sprawling investigation. His alleged accomplice and girlfriend, identified in reports as 32-year-old Victoria Cox, has also been arrested and could face death penalty-eligible charges just like Callihan, according to a top cop.

“We’re still trying to determine her exact role,” Chief Wade said, WDSU reported . “She will be held accountable for her actions and her role in this horrific event that happened that spanned from Tangipahoa to South Jackson. She could possibly be facing capital murder charges along with him, or accessory before and after the fact.”

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