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LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. (TCD) — A 63-year-old man will spend the remainder of his life in jail for abducting and killing his ex-girlfriend’s younger daughter practically 37 years in the past.
The Lexington County Sheriff’s Workplace introduced Feb. 8 {that a} decide sentenced Thomas McDowell to life in jail for first-degree housebreaking, kidnapping, and homicide in reference to the disappearance and dying of 4-year-old Jessica Gutierrez, who went lacking from her South Lake Drive residence in June 1986 and has by no means been discovered.
McDowell was handed two concurrent life sentences after a jury convicted him of the fees, WACH-TV stories.
In keeping with the sheriff’s workplace, on June 6, 1986, Gutierrez’s mom awakened and seen her daughter had disappeared. She reportedly requested her different kids about her whereabouts and searched across the residence however couldn’t discover her. The lady’s mom contacted legislation enforcement, and so they started an investigation. Officers looked for her on foot and from the air, however “nobody ever noticed her once more.”
Subsequent investigation revealed that on June 6, 1986, early within the morning, somebody had reportedly entered their home by means of a window, kidnapped the lady, and went out the entrance door.
Greater than three many years after Gutierrez’s disappearance, in September 2021, FBI particular brokers and analysts assigned to its specialised Youngster Abduction Speedy Deployment Group and prosecutors with the South Carolina Lawyer Common’s Workplace got here to Lexington to reexamine the case.
Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon mentioned, “[South Carolina Law Enforcement Division] brokers additionally joined us in reviewing preliminary stories and interviewing greater than 125 folks.”
He continued, “Due to the work we did, coming collectively as a staff, we had been capable of type and join extra items of the puzzle about what occurred to Jessica all these years in the past.”
Officers recognized McDowell as the first suspect, and in January 2022, Wake Forest Police arrested him at his residence 20 miles north of Raleigh, North Carolina.
In keeping with the sheriff’s workplace, “Prosecutors mentioned McDowell dated Jessica’s mom, Debra, for a short while in 1986.”
Since his 2022 arrest, McDowell has been held within the Lexington County Detention Middle however will probably be transported to the South Carolina Division of Corrections.
After the trial, Gutierrez’s mom instructed WACH, “I hope that he confesses to the place her physique is. I have already got a spot ready for her, the place she could be reunited with the remainder of her household. I’m able to deliver my child residence.”
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