Background: Daniel Callihan (WWLTV/YouTube). Inset top: Erin Brunett (Amber Alert). Inset bottom: Callie Brunett (Facebook).
A 38-year-old man from Louisiana has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal murder of a 35-year-old mother in her mobile home, followed by the abduction of her two young daughters, one of whom he also killed.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Lance Africk handed down the life sentence to Daniel Callihan for the murders of Callie Brunett and her 4-year-old daughter, Erin Brunett, according to court records. In August, Callihan had entered a guilty plea to charges of kidnapping resulting in death and transporting a minor across state lines with the intent of committing criminal sexual acts.
Victoria Cox, Callihan’s girlfriend and purported accomplice in these heinous crimes, faces a capital murder charge in Mississippi, where she could potentially receive the death penalty.
The tragic events were first uncovered in June 2024, after Callie Brunett was discovered dead in her locked mobile home in Loranger, about an hour north of New Orleans. Her gruesome death, marked by over 50 stab wounds, came to light a day after she was reported missing. Her two daughters, 4-year-old Erin and her 6-year-old sister, were also missing from the home they shared.
Prosecutors revealed that on the night of June 12, 2024, Callihan murdered Brunett and abducted her daughters using the victim’s car. He then picked up Cox and crossed state lines, taking the young girls to a location on Boozier Drive in Jackson, Mississippi. Authorities noted that Callihan and Brunett had previously been in a relationship.
Further accusations include Callihan and Cox committing sexual battery against Brunett’s 6-year-old daughter. Prosecutors detailed how Callihan “intentionally suffocated Erin to death by holding her tightly against his chest.” After his arrest, Callihan admitted to killing both Brunett and Erin and to sexually assaulting Erin’s sister.
Authorities discovered Erin’s body in a wooded area near the Mississippi home on July 13, 2024. Her sister was found alive nearby and transported to the hospital for treatment.
The crime scene where the children were found was possibly linked to human trafficking, the Louisiana-based Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office and Mississippi-based Jackson Police Department said at the time.
“We see cages, small animal cages,” Jackson Police Chief Joseph Wade said. “This is very, very disturbing to me as a police chief and as a father to witness and see what I saw.”
After his arrest in Mississippi, Callihan confessed to reporters with cameras rolling as he was being escorted in handcuffs and a yellow jail jumpsuit. He gave no reason for the bloodshed and asked to die by lethal injection.
“Unfortunately, on Lexapro, sober, no drugs in my system, I did,” he said to reporters when asked about the girl’s killing. “I have no reason for what I did. All I want to say is that I was sober and only on Lexapro — and off Lexapro — and I’m also diagnosed with borderline multiple personality disorder.”
“For what I did, lethal injection is the easiest thing for me,” he added as he sat in the back of a police vehicle.
