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CorruptedMistress

Well-Known Member


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Amanda Mandy Dougherty was just 5-years-old when she was discovered missing from her Fort Launderdale, FL home on the morning of September 22, 1994.

The night before, Mandy had gone to bed at 10pm in her home. Her mother claimed to have last seen her between 11pm and 12am asleep in her bed (though some reports say it was her father). The next morning, her father went into her room to wake her at approximately 6am. As he entered her room, he noticed she was not in her bed or anywhere in the room at all. As they scoured the house looking for her, her younger brother and father discovered the front door wide open.

There isn't a lot of information out about Amanda's initial disappearance. Reports claim that not only was her family at the home at the time of the 'abduction', but the family also had two pitbull dogs in the house who never alerted to hearing a thing. I also don't know how the door remained open without them leaving the residence, either.

Nevertheless, two days after Mandy was reported missing, her body was discovered nude near a canal twenty eight miles from her home. Her body had obvious trauma, but no combative wounds and her neck still had a wire around it which was used to strangle her to death. Police said that she was not sexually assaulted. Her case has yet to be solved and no one has been charged in connection with her death.

The only thing police have to go on is the fact that whomever killed Amanda was familiar with the layout of her home and friendly with their dogs. This made David Dougherty, family members, and visitors to the home suspects in the case.

David Dougherty was well known for having a violent history. At the age of 17, he was charged and found guilty of manslaughter after running over a friend with a motorcycle. He was given two years probation. A year before Amanda's murder, he was put on probation for 5 years due to him striking his 72-year-old grandmother, who was critically ill with cancer. Even in 2000, his violence shined through with a domestic violence arrest for trying to strangle his wife which led to a standoff with police when he pulled out a starter's pistol. Police eventually reopened the case to question witnesses again, and revealed that David had failed a polygraph and voice-stress test while being questioned for his daughter's disappearance in '94.

Amanda's mother and father denied the allegations that police made against David. They insisted that they were not looking at the big picture and that there was a family friend that they believed could have been responsible for Amanda's murder. The Dougherty's suspect had been kicked out of the home a couple of years before Mandy's disappearance due to him abusing drugs in their house and for having sex toys that 3-year-old Amanda found. Police never released the name of suspects and as far as what I can see, they focused on David as their main suspect, but had no evidence linking him to the disappearance, the murder, and no motive.

In November of 2000, a 10-year-old girl was abducted at gunpoint, then sexually assaulted before being dropped off at a warehouse. She described the man who raped her and the red van he was driving. It wasn't long before they found Stephen Covell, 35, driving in Margate, FL where he lives. He was pulled over due to the witnesses descriptions. While questioning him, they noticed a red dye stain, one that is associated with bank dye packets during robberies. Police soon realized they had not only found the little girl's rapist, but also the Big Boy Bandit.

Police were soon able to link him to the six robberies that had occurred that past month. He also admitted to sexually assaulting the girl who positively identified him. His DNA was discovered to be a match later on in the investigation.

So, why am I bring him up, you may ask?

Stephen Covell just so happens to be the aforementioned roomie that was kicked out for the drug and sex toy related incident. He now became the prime suspect in Amanda Dougherty's murder. Police even began looking back into past crimes with similar actions. A 3-year-old little girl was abducted from her front yard, sexually assaulted, and then left by a dumpster where she was later found. She told investigators that the man who took her drove a red truck.

Covell has not been charged with any other crimes aside from the rape and kidnapping of the 10-year-old little girl and the bank robberies. He is going to be serving 3 life sentences for the rape and kidnapping case.

Despite the news coverage again in 2000 due to the arrest of David Dougherty and the startling findings with Stephen Covell, no one has been charged for what happened to 5-year-old Mandy. Is it possible her father, in a fit of anger, beat and strangled his daughter to death before dumping her body 28 miles from home? If that was the case, is the mother being honest about not hearing anything that night? Maybe a woman battered into silence? Or is it possible that Stephen had a pedophilic urge that night and knew where to find young Mandy in her bed, snuck in her home, but freaked out and strangled her because she recognized him? Maybe had a change of heart about raping her after abducting her, but had to kill her because she knew who was? What about these other suspects that were never named?

I don't know the answers, but I can only hope that someone does and Amanda's case be solved and justice be served sooner rather than later. RIP Mandy.


http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/Content/Office-of-Statewide-Intelligence/Homicides/Amanda-Mandy-Doughtery.aspx



 
This is sad, like a hybrid of Polly Klass and Jon Benet Ramsey.
looks like she was surrounded by a couple of bad dudes. One being her Dad. I would look up that Stephen Covells ass with a microscope. What a coincidence!
 

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