In a press conference Thursday, Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood identified the prime suspect in a 20-year missing teen case that received its breakthrough on Wednesday. The disappearance of 16-year-old Autumn McClure in May 2004 is believed to be the result of a murder by Brian Christopher Donley Jr.
According to Chitwood’s statement, Donley died on May 26th, 2022 at the age of 49. He was said to be the boyfriend of McClure’s coworker at a local Winn-Dixie store. As the story goes, McClure began staying with the coworker and Donley in the Shady Oaks mobile home park.
Initially after McClure’s disappearance in 2004, the coworker denied knowing anything about what happened. She was interviewed again in 2018, and still maintained her story. After the VSO received a tip in 2021 that Donley and the coworker had killed a teenage girl in Volusia County, the investigation was reinvigorated and the coworker was questioned again.
In 2022 detectives gave the coworker immunity from prosecution in exchange for information on the disappearance of McClure, signed off on by the State Attorney’s Office. With this in-hand, the coworker said her late boyfriend had murdered McClure in the trailer in front of her, and threatened to kill her too if she told anyone.
The site where Donley is believed to have buried McClure’s body had a new trailer put on top of it in the time since the murder, but the VSO worked with the property owners to have it removed. In tandem with the University of Florida and Dr. Lerah Sutton, an excavation was conducted which produced what’s thought to be McClure’s remains. As of Thursday, 99% or more of the remains are believed to have been recovered. McClure’s family has been told of the ongoing developments as investigators await positive identification.
“There really never is a ‘cold case,’” Sheriff Mike Chitwood said Thursday. “The men and women that are assigned to our Major Case Unit and all of our investigative units, that’s what they understand […] I’m hoping to God that when he took his last breath on May 26th of 2022, that maybe he had a vision of where the hell he was headed.”
“Cases like this are why we do what we do, and I’m extremely grateful to have been able to assist in this one,” added Dr. Sutton.
