I hope i can post this here.  This has been a huge story in thei country and even though it isn't pet related, I know it has been on alot of peoples minds.  Let's keep this family in our prayers.

 
 
Sex offender admits abducting,
killing Fla. girl, sheriff says
Suspect John Couey was neighbor
of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford

BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 6:57 p.m. ET March 18, 2005
 

HOMOSASSA, Fla. - A registered sex offender with an extensive criminal history confessed Friday to killing 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who vanished from her bedroom in the middle of the night more than three weeks ago, officials said.

Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy announced at a news conference that John Evander Couey, 46, earlier identified as a "person of interest" in the girl's Feb. 23 disappearance, had confessed Friday after failing a polygraph.

After the test, Couey said, "I don’t need you to tell me the results; I already know what they are," Dawsy said. He then asked for investigators to return to the room and "admitted to abducting Jessica and subsequently taking her life," the sheriff said.

Searching for body
Dawsy said authorities were looking for Jessica's body in an area near the home of Couey's half-sister, where he indicated he had buried it.

Couey lived in Homossa, about 60 miles north of Tampa, before recently leaving Florida, authorities said.

Chris Livingston / EPA via Sipa Press
Jessica Lunsford, shown in an undated family photo.

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Earlier, Dawsy said that “Couey is being cooperative with us and he is answering our questions. We’re building a rapport with the gentleman.”

Couey was arrested Thursday near a Salvation Army shelter in Augusta, Ga., because he didn’t notify Florida officials he was leaving the state, a requirement for sex offenders. He had a first court appearance on Friday and could return to Florida quickly if he doesn't fight extradition, Dawsy said.

Couey’s home in Homosassa is about two miles from Jessica’s, but he also sometimes stayed with his half-sister who lives within “eyeshot” of her house, Dawsy said.

Investigators searched his half-sister's home and removed some items that were sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for further investigation, Dawsy said.

Mark Lunsford, Jessica’s father, said Wednesday that the family didn’t know Couey. “It’s someone nobody has seen before,” Lunsford said. “I know my daughter doesn’t go with strangers. So I just don’t see it.”

Detectives tried to contact Couey five days after Jessica disappeared and discovered he no longer lived there. Police in Georgia picked him up on Saturday and interviewed him for about two hours before releasing him.

Long criminal record
Couey’s criminal record includes arrests for burglary, carrying a concealed weapon and indecent exposure. In 1991, he was arrested in Kissimmee on a charge of fondling a child under age 16. Records don’t show how the case was resolved.

During a burglary in 1978, he was accused of grabbing a girl in her bedroom, placing his hand over her mouth and kissing her, Dawsy said. Couey was sentenced to 10 years but was paroled in 1980.

George Kanaris, owner of a restaurant about a mile from the Lunsford home, said Couey worked there as a dishwasher in the early 1990s but was fired after he wrote a three-page romantic letter to a busgirl who was 14 or 15.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7190457/