Two People Are Being Charged in Mississippi With Kidnapping and Killing a Girl in Louisiana

A man has been charged in Mississippi with murder, kidnapping, and other crimes related to the children. He is accused of killing a woman in Louisiana last month and taking her four- and six-year-old girls to Mississippi, where one of them was also found dead.

A grand jury charged Daniel Callihan with seven counts, including capital murder for the death of the 4-year-old, kidnapping twice, sexual battery three times, and having a stolen car. The charges were filed on June 28 in Hinds County, Mississippi.

Victoria Cox, a woman who is accused of working with him, was also charged in the children’s cases, including capital murder for the death of a 4-year-old child, kidnapping, and sexual battery.

Callihan, 36, is accused by police in Louisiana of killing the girls’ mother, Callie Brunett, at her home in Loranger, Louisiana, last month and then taking the girls to Mississippi. The girl, 4, was found dead on a property in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 13. The girl, 6, was found hurt but living on the same day.

Callihan and Cox were both taken in Mississippi on June 13 and June 14. They were both charged with state crimes in Louisiana last month, and Callihan is also facing federal crimes.

CNN was told by a lawyer for Callihan in Louisiana that he could not say anything about the charges in Mississippi. CNN was unable to find a lawyer in Mississippi who could help Callihan.

Chris Routh, Cox’s public defender in Hinds County, told CNN in an email, “An indictment is nothing more than a formal charge and is no indication of guilt or culpability.” In this country, everyone who is charged with a crime is thought to be innocent until proven guilty. Ms. Cox says she is innocent and will say she is not guilty when she is arraigned.

Louisiana police found Brunett dead in her home in Loranger and then put out an Amber Alert on June 13 for her children, who were missing.

Police caught Callihan in Jackson, Mississippi, several hours after the Amber Alert. Callihan was arrested in a wooded area near a Jackson home, about 130 miles north of Brunett’s home in Louisiana. Police said they found the body of the 4-year-old child there. Police said the 6-year-old was hurt and was taken to the hospital.

Investigators said the wooded area with the small cages and wiring huts might have something to do with selling people.

Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office Chief Jimmy Travis said last month that investigators thought Callihan had dated Brunett “off and on.”

More than $62,000 has been raised for a GoFundMe effort that was set up “in loving support of the Brunett family in a time of unimaginable suffering.”

Louisiana charges
According to court records filed in Louisiana’s Tangipahoa Parish on June 20, a grand jury charged Callihan with two counts of first-degree murder: one for the death of Brunett and one for the death of the 4-year-old. He was also charged with kidnapping a child in the second degree and kidnapping a child with abuse.

According to Scott Perrilloux, the district attorney for Tangipahoa Parish and the rest of Louisiana, the grand jury also charged Cox with first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping of a child, second-degree kidnapping of a child, and accessory after the fact in first-degree murder.

Callihan will be put to death for the two counts of first-degree murder, according to court papers filed Friday in Tangipahoa Parish.

Court records show that Callihan pleaded not guilty to his Louisiana state charges on Monday.

CNN has asked Callihan’s lawyer for a response.

Callihan is also being charged in federal court in the eastern district of Louisiana with kidnapping and transportation with the plan to commit a sexual crime.