The man accused of killing a Louisiana woman and three-year-old daughter earlier this month appeared in federal court in New Orleans on Friday on a charge of kidnapping and transportation of a victim with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
Daniel Callihan, 36, was extradited from Mississippi, where he fled after killing Callie Brunett and kidnapping her 6- and 4-year-old daughters on June 13, WVUE reported.
Brunett’s parents had initially reported her missing but went to her home to look for her, finding her body in a bedroom and the two children and her car missing, as CrimeOnline reported. Investigators caught up with Callihan in Jackson after tracking Brunett’s stolen car using license plate cameras, but he had killed the younger girl before law enforcement arrived on scene.
An autopsy determined the younger girl died from asphyxiation or suffocation. Both girls were found in pit about 50 yards behind a home on Boozier Drive in Jackson, the federal affidavit says. The younger girl was dead.
Callihan and an accomplice, 32-year-old Victoria Cox, face murder charges in Louisiana and Mississippi, WVUE said.
746301646 Callihan Federal Charges in Nola by kc wildmoon on Scribd
An affidavit filed in the federal case says that he admitted to stabbing Brunett “approximately thirty times in her Loranger, Louisiana, residence.” He also told investigators that he “had wanted to murder Brunett for some time.”
After killing Brunnett, Callihan said he told the two girls, put them into Brunnett’s car, and drove to Mississippi.
According to the affidavit, Callihan said the two girls were crying when they got to the Jackson location where they were later found “and did not want to stay with Callihan.”
Ultimately, he told the detectives he decided to kill the younger girl and keep the 6-year-old “alive as a ‘sex slave.'” The next point is redacted in the affidavit, as are two further points of the document, which include something the older girl “disclosed” and something “revealed” by an examination conducted by a medical professional.
The document then cites “pertinent laws” in Louisiana and Mississippi to include rape, sexual battery, and fondling of a child.
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[Featured image: Daniel Callihan/Plaquemines Parish Sheriff’s Office]