LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. (TCD) — A 63-year-old man will spend the rest of his life in prison for abducting and killing his ex-girlfriend’s young daughter nearly 37 years ago.
The Lexington County Sheriff’s Office announced Feb. 8 that a judge sentenced Thomas McDowell to life in prison for first-degree burglary, kidnapping, and murder in connection with the disappearance and death of 4-year-old Jessica Gutierrez, who went missing from her South Lake Drive home in June 1986 and has never been found.
McDowell was handed two concurrent life sentences after a jury convicted him of the charges, WACH-TV reports.
According to the sheriff’s office, on June 6, 1986, Gutierrez’s mother woke up and noticed her daughter had disappeared. She reportedly asked her other children about her whereabouts and searched around the home but couldn’t find her. The girl’s mother contacted law enforcement, and they began an investigation. Officials searched for her on foot and from the air, but “no one ever saw her again.”