VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Two decades after 16-year-old Autumn McClure was reported missing by her grandmother, new information has led detectives to her suspected remains and has helped put the pieces together to how she died.
The man investigators now say killed McClure and buried her under his home died in 2022.
"The sad part is, he'll never face in this world...the evil he perpetrated," Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said Thursday.
Chitwood confirmed crews discovered McClure's suspected remains this week, and that detectives were able to contact one of McClure's only remaining living relatives, her twin brother, who told them he's relieved to have the closure and ability to bury his sister with respect.
When the investigation into McClure's disappearance began in 2004, detectives believed the last time she was seen was when her boyfriend dropped her off at the mall. However, the sheriff said when the agency talked to him again in 2016, he admitted he lied about dropping her off at the mall. He said he actually dropped her off at a bridge where she got into another car with Jessica Freeman, who worked with McClure at a local Winn Dixie.
This led authorities to discover McClure was living with Freeman and her boyfriend, Brian Donley, according to the sheriff. Investigators contacted the couple, who confirmed she lived with them in 2004 but denied knowing where she was.
Then came the break in the cold case through a tip investigators got in 2021.
The sheriff said a man called detectives and gave them two names that had confirmed previous suspicions.
"[He said] 'What I need to tell you is that there's a teenage girl who is missing and is dead and is buried in Volusia County, and Brian Donley and/or Jessica Freeman had to have something to do with this," Chitwood said.
The call came from Donley's relative, who said he couldn't live with knowing Donley had told people he was involved in McClure's death.
Detectives asked Freeman to be interviewed again, but she refused to talk until the state attorney granted her immunity from prosecution.
Once she had immunity, Freeman told investigators McClure was unhappy living with her grandmother, so she invited McClure to come live in Donley's trailer with her. She said the three became involved in a sexual relationship.
At the time, Donley was 31 years old and McClure was 16 years old.
Freeman told detectives she came home one afternoon and found Donley choking McClure in the bathroom.
"By the time she intervened, she saw Autumn was lifeless...and she left the trailer," the sheriff said. "Two weeks later, when she comes home. She asks what happened to Autumn and Autumn's stuff and his response to her is 'Shut up or the same thing will happen to you. She's dead.'"
Freeman told officials in 2021 she did not know where McClure's body was.
Detectives on the case said McClure wanted to leave the home and go back to living with her grandmother, and Donley killed her because he was afraid of the consequences of having been in a sexual relationship with a minor.
After discovering Donley died in 2022 from a medical complication, the sheriff said Freeman called investigators back in 2023 and told them Donley buried McClure underneath the trailer.
"She also stated that in late 2021 or early 2022, Brian paid a visit to [the property] and saw the new manufactured home going in there and saw the new driveway going in and was very relieved at the construction that was taking place there," the sheriff said.