Louisiana Sheriff: Man Arrested for ‘Heinous’ Murders of Woman and Child

A man accused of murdering a mother and one of her two young daughters has been arrested, Louisiana law enforcement officials said on Friday.

The Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office said the suspect, identified as 36-year-old Daniel Callihan, was taken into custody on Thursday in Jackson, Mississippi, for the alleged “brutal and heinous” murders of 35-year-old Callie Brunett and her four-year-old daughter, Erin, according to People.

An Amber alert was issued on Thursday for the two children after their mother was found dead in her home and the little girls were nowhere to be found.

Police officers and U.S. Marshals found Callihan in the woods behind a Jackson home and arrested him after a brief pursuit.

When authorities searched the area, they located a dead child in the woods, whom they later identified as Erin. The other child, who is six, was found alive and transported to a local hospital.

WWLTV reported that the older girl was injured but expected to be okay:

The sheriff’s office told the outlet Callihan had sometimes dated Brunett. However, he is not the children’s father. Officials are still working to determine Erin’s cause of death and identify a motive in the case.

Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office Chief of Operations Jimmy Travis told reporters that the suspect directed officials to a car, where they found the six-year-old girl, before he took them to the wooded area near the vehicle where the other child’s body was discovered:

“Paramedics were checking out the six-year-old to make sure she’s okay. Our next step now is to interview, see what we can get from him to tie this case all together and lock him down. But also the thing is to bring this six-year-old back to her grandparents,” he explained.