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Girl, 8, Found Buried
Alive in Trash Bin
May 23 (AP) -- An 8-year-old girl who was raped and
buried alive told a friend she remembers her attacker
towering over her before she passed out, then awoke
seven hours later beneath a pile of rocks and concrete
blocks when she heard the voices of rescuers.
The girl, who had been
staying overnight at her godmother's house, was reported
missing early Sunday. She was hospitalized in good
condition Monday and a teenage boy who also had been
staying at the home was arrested. Authorities said he
confessed.
"She said the last thing she remembers is that he looked
over her with these big eyes and then she said she went
to sleep. She said she was waiting for us to find her,"
said 18-year-old Danielle Holloman, a family friend who
calls the girl her sister.
"She said she knew we would come get her. That's why as
soon as the police came, she wiggled her fingers,"
Holloman said Monday.
The girl was found Sunday morning when police Sgt. Mike
Hall climbed into a 25-foot long trash bin, opened the
lid to a 30-gallon recycling container and saw part of
the girl's hand and foot peeking out from under heavy
concrete slabs, said police Sgt. Dan Boland.
He said rescuers feared the worst, but their mood turned
jubilant when they realized she was alive.
"There's no doubt in my mind that this child would have
been dead if he didn't find her. She was dehydrated and
in rough shape with pieces of cement blocks on top of
her and she was face down," Boland said. "There was no
way for her to get out on her own."
She had been sexually assaulted, authorities said.
Her disappearance rattled a state that had been outraged
over the arrests of sex offenders in the separate
killings earlier this year of 9-year-old Jessica
Lunsford and 13-year-old Sarah Lunde.
"When a child is abducted and abandoned like this, the
critical thing is time," Police Chief William Smith
said. "That we found this child alive is a miracle."
The 8-year-old had been staying overnight at her
godmother's house. After police found her, the girl
named her attacker and described him. The teenage boy
she named, a friend who was staying in the home, was
arrested.
Authorities said Milagro Cunningham, 17, confessed and
was charged with attempted murder, sexual battery on a
child under 12, and false imprisonment of a victim under
age 13, police said. A court appearance was scheduled
Monday.
The teen initially told investigators that the girl may
have been abducted by five men in a station wagon, and
that he tried to follow them. He changed his story
during questioning, Boland said.
"He was a good person. He would clean and do chores,
laugh and play jokes and stuff. We never thought he
would do something like that," Holloman said. "The only
reason I can think he went crazy like this is his father
died and his mother didn't want him. Nobody wanted him."
Holloman said the teen stayed with an aunt until she
kicked him out about four months ago. He then went to
live at the home of Lisa Taylor, Holloman's mother,
where the victim occasionally spent weekends while her
mother worked.
Cunningham's aunt had accused him of stealing and the
teen has a relatively minor criminal record, authorities
said. He was on probation for throwing a rock through a
car window.
Taylor was asleep when the girl vanished from the
bedroom she was sharing with Holloman's 1-year-old son.
Holloman and her sister discovered the girl was missing
when they came home after a night of roller-skating,
authorities said.
A half hour later, Cunningham knocked on the door and
the sisters found him with his shirt torn and his
clothes covered with dirt. Investigators said that's
when he started telling his story about the men in the
station wagon.
Authorities said the girl was found far enough from any
homes that no one would likely have heard if she had
cried out. The trash bin was in a fenced-off former
landfill behind a park where she often played with
Holloman, Holloman's son and other friends.
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