A 4-year-old girl was found dead and her 6-year-old sister was rescued from a horrific scene involving small animal cages that may be related to human trafficking, police in Mississippi said.
The grisly scene in Jackson on Thursday comes a day after the girls’ mother, 35-year-old Callie Burnett, was found murdered 130 miles away in southern Louisiana.
The prime suspect is Burnett’s boyfriend Daniel Callihan, WDSU reported.
Jalie Brunett, 6, was discovered alive inside of a car in a wooded area in Jackson on Thursday. Her younger sister Erin’s dead body was a few yards away, the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office said, according to WVUE.
“Based on the crime scene, what it looks like, this may be the place where there has been some human trafficking done,” Joseph Wade of the Jackson Police Department told reporters at a press conference. “We see cages, small animal cages.”
Julie was taken to an area hospital with minor injuries for treatment.
Investigators are working to determine how Erin died.
“You don’t want to see that as a police chief. You don’t want to see that as a father,” Wade said.
“A coward took this child from her family.”
Callahan led cops to the girls after a bystander him for acting suspiciously, according to authorities.
Burnett, the girls’ mother, was missing for over 24 hours before being found “brutally murdered” in the bedroom of her home in Loranger on Thursday, authorities said.
Her children, who had been reported missing by their father on Wednesday, were nowhere to be found when the body was discovered, police said.
The kids were kidnapped sometime before 8 a.m. Wednesday, according to the Louisiana State Police.
An amber alert was issued after noon, which said a man was wanted for questioning for a domestic violence incident that resulted in Burnett’s death.
Law enforcement has not yet had the opportunity to interview Callahan, officials said.
The Post has reached out to local agencies for additional information.
