Girl, nine, raped and buried alive

A nine-year-old girl was raped, bound and buried alive, kneeling and clutching a purple stuffed dolphin, US state prosecutors said.

Jessica Lunsford’s body was found on March 19, buried about 150 yards from her house in Homosassa, about 60 miles north of Tampa, Florida.

According to documents released last night, Jessica was found wearing shorts and a shirt – different from the pink nightgown her family said she was wearing when they reported her missing on February 24.

The body was wrapped in two plastic rubbish bags knotted at her head and feet in a grave covered by a mound of leaves, the state attorney’s office said in the documents.

Detective David Strickland wrote that Jessica’s hands appeared to be bound in front of her with speaker wire. Strickland also wrote that a coroner noted signs of sexual assault.

Jessica died of asphyxiation, according to a coroner’s report. A convicted sex offender, John Couey, 46, is charged with her murder. He has pleaded not guilty.

Officials said they believe Jessica may have been alive in Couey’s home while police and volunteers searched for her. After she was killed, Couey fled to Georgia.

A message left for Couey’s lawyer was not immediately returned last night.

Couey told investigators where to find the grave. He has a home elsewhere in Homosassa, but sometimes stayed with a half-sister in her mobile home, where Jessica’s body was found, authorities said.

Prosecutors said Couey told them his half-sister and two others living in the mobile home did not know he had kidnapped the girl and kept her there.

Clothing taken from Couey’s bedroom appeared to have blood on them, and a mattress and bedding had similar stains, though there was no evidence Jessica had been in the room, according to the documents.