Two people arrested in connection with the death of a Louisiana girl and the capture of her sister are charged with murder and sexual assault, police say

CNN
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Two people arrested in Mississippi – including a man accused of killing a Louisiana woman last week and kidnapping her four- and six-year-old daughters, one of whom was found dead – have been charged with felony sexual abuse of the children, Mississippi police said Monday.

Daniel Callihan and Victoria Cox were arrested in Mississippi last week after authorities searching for the missing girls found the four-year-old dead and the six-year-old injured at a location in Jackson on Thursday. Investigators believe the crime may be related to human trafficking, authorities said.

Authorities in Louisiana had said Callihan was accused of killing the children’s mother, Callie Brunett, in her home in Loranger, Louisiana, and kidnapping the girls – a case that prompted investigators to issue an Amber Alert for the children hours before police found them more than 100 miles north in Jackson.

Callihan and Cox face charges in Mississippi for crimes against the children, Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade said Monday. Charges in Louisiana and at the federal level are pending, Wade said.

Cox is accused of being Callihan’s accomplice, Wade said, without providing further details. CNN was unable to locate either Callihan’s or Wade’s lawyers.

Wade said he believes the 4-year-old girl, whose body was found unburied in the woods behind a Jackson home, died of suffocation or asphyxiation. The cause of death will be determined by a medical examiner, he said.

When asked if Mississippi would seek the death penalty, Wade said that would be up to prosecutors, but “I think if there was one case that could definitely get the death penalty, it would be this one – because I still remember the sight of the dead four-year-old in the woods.”

“We do not anticipate at this time that anyone other than these two will be charged at the state level,” Wade said Monday. “The city of Jackson, (the state of) Louisiana and the entire Gulf South region are better off because these two are behind bars.”

Authorities have not commented on the motives for the deaths of Brunett and the four-year-old or for the abduction of the children.

In a court appearance on Monday, Cox insisted that she had nothing to do with Callihan’s allegations and that both girls were still alive when she last saw them in Jackson, according to CNN affiliate WLBT.

A judge said Monday that Cox could remain in custody without bail on the capital charge, and bail was set at $500,000 on the sexual assault charge, WLBT reported.

An Amber alert was issued Thursday for Brunett’s daughters after Brunett was found dead in their southeastern Louisiana home, the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana said. The alert said a man – who authorities later determined to be Callihan – was “wanted for questioning regarding a domestic violence incident that occurred at the time of the abduction and resulted in a homicide.”

Investigators believe Callihan occasionally dated Brunett, Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office Chief Jimmy Travis said last week.

A few hours after the Amber alert, police in Jackson – about 130 miles north of Brunett’s Louisiana home – tracked down Callihan and found a “tragic scene,” Wade said.

After a brief chase, Callihan was arrested in a wooded area near a home in Jackson and authorities found the 4-year-old’s body, according to Wade. The 6-year-old was found injured and taken to a hospital, police said.

The 6-year-old is still recovering in Jackson, Wade said Monday.

Small cages and small cable boxes at the Jackson site led investigators to believe that human trafficking may have taken place there, Wade said Monday.

Cox was arrested Friday at a motel in south Jackson, Wade said.

As Callihan was being escorted away by officers from Jackson Police Headquarters on Friday, a reporter asked him why he allegedly killed the girl.

“I have no reason for what I did,” Callihan told reporters, adding that he had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.

Callihan did not deny anything in his conversation with investigators and did not incriminate Cox, Wade said on Monday. Cox is an acquaintance of Callihan, the chief said last week.

A GoFundMe page has been set up “in loving support of the Brunett family during a time of unimaginable suffering” to raise money for the funeral expenses of Brunett and her four-year-old daughter, and to help the family and surviving child cope with the tragedy.

CNN’s Elizabeth Wolfe, Mallika Kallingal and Sarah Dewberry contributed to this report.