Unearthed remains in Florida belong to 16-year-old girl missing since 2004 – Law Officer

ORMOND BEACH, Fla. – Unearthed remains discovered at a mobile home park in Volusia County, Florida late last month have been positively identified as Autumn McClure. She was 16-years-old when she vanished in 2004, authorities confirmed.

“This week, VSO Crime Scene Unit personnel and an ANDE Rapid DNA scientist developed a profile from DNA extracted from the bones recovered at the Ormond Beach burial site,” the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said in an update last week. The DNA was compared to the family of Autumn McClure and a match was made, Fox News reported.

“Rather than sending DNA to a state lab for analysis, the use of VSO’s in-house ANDE Rapid DNA technology significantly reduced the time it took to make an official identification for the family,” the sheriff’s office said.

In May 2004, McClure was reported missing by her grandmother after her boyfriend claimed he dropped her off at the local mall. He later changed his story and said he actually left her at a bridge where she got into a car with a woman named Jessica Freeman.

During the course of the investigation, detectives learned that McClure was staying with Freeman as well as Freeman’s boyfriend, Brian Donley, who was 31 at the time.

McClure and Freeman worked together at a Winn-Dixie supermarket. The pair, along with Donley, were engaged in a “romantic relationship,” reported Fox.

Freeman and Donley lived in the Shady Oaks mobile home park. The couple told detectives that McClure stayed with them only for a short time. They further claimed to having no knowledge on her whereabouts once she was reported missing.

The sheriff’s office received information in 2021 blaming Donley or Freeman for the teen’s death, along with additional evidence that was not specified.

Donley died during a medical operation in 2022. Once he was dead, Freeman was offered immunity and reportedly confessed that she witnessed Donley kill McClure.

“She came home one afternoon and saw Brian choking Autumn in the bathroom,” Sheriff Mike Chitwood said. “By the time she intervened, she saw that Autumn was lifeless, and she left” the trailer.

Donley threatened to kill Freeman if she ever said anything about the homicide, the woman told detectives.

It’s been nearly 20 years since McClure disappeared. The property where the trailer was located changed hands several times, and a new mobile home was placed there in 2021.

VSO had the trailer removed, along with a concrete slab, which allowed excavators the access to unearth the teen’s remains.

Sheriff Chitwood said, “I’m hoping to God that when he took his last breath on May 26 of 2022, that maybe he had a vision of where the hell he was headed.”