Authorities recover body of missing Florida girl

HOMOSASSA, Fla. -- The news this small community feared finally came Saturday: Police had found the body of 9-year-old Jessica Marie Lunsford, more than three weeks after she was snatched from her bedroom.

Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy said Jessica's body was found during an overnight search near a mobile home close to the house where she lived with her father and grandparents. A registered sex offender confessed Friday to the kidnapping and killing and told authorities where to look for the missing girl.

John Evander Couey, 46, confessed to kidnapping and killing Jessica after taking a lie-detector test Friday in Georgia, Dawsy said. Police said he was arrested Thursday in Augusta, Ga., on a probation violation for failing to notify officials that he was moving, a requirement for sex offenders.

At the time of the abduction, Couey was staying in a mobile home about 150 yards from Jessica's house with his half sister and three others.

The body was found near the trailer home, but Dawsy refused to give details of where it was discovered or how Jessica was killed.

Mark Lunsford has said the family did not know Couey.

"He may have interacted with Jessica," Dawsy said. "But there is no relationship between Couey and this family."

At a news conference late Friday from Ohio, the girl's mother, Angela Bryant, repeatedly made the same vow: Couey, she said, "will pay."

"This man's hurt too many people," she said through tears. "He's hurt too many children. And one of them is my daughter. He took her life from her and she didn't deserve it. He will pay."

Jessica, a third grader, was last seen when she went to bed after attending church. She was discovered missing the next morning, with the door unlocked and her stuffed animal gone. The clothes she had laid out for school were still in place, and her shoes weren't missing.

Hundreds of police and volunteers, with help from bloodhounds and helicopters, searched the area about 60 miles north of Tampa for days following her disappearance. Jessica's family made emotional appeals on national television for her safe return.