Police have arrested the boyfriend of a woman whose 15-year-old daughter they believe was murdered when she went missing 10 days ago in West Virginia.
They said they are ‘very confident’ decomposed remains discovered Thursday belong to the girl.
Riley Crossman vanished May 7 and law enforcement said the partner of the teen’s mother, 41-year-old Andy J. McCauley, Jr., has been a ‘suspect from day one’.
Crossman’s mother Chantel Oakley noticed she was missing May 8, after she learned she didn’t attend Berkeley Springs High School the day after her maternal grandmother last saw her around 7pm.
Oakley has seen her 3.30pm that day when she arrived home from school to wake her up for work.
Riley Crossman vanished May 7 and was last seen going to bed at her West Virginia home
Crossman’s mother reported the girl (picture right) vanished on May 8. Cops then began watching mother’s boyfriend 46-year-old Andy McCauley, Jr. (left)
‘I got home from work around 10pm. Her door was shut, so by all accounts she was in her room, but I didn’t actually see her,’ Oakley told Dateline.
She had reportedly texted her boyfriend Haydn at 10.30pm and friends until midnight. She then reportedly attempted to video call her boyfriend around 5.40am via Facebook Messenger on May 8.
Oakley and the girl’s father Lance Crossman said their calls went straight to voicemail that evening as they tried to find her.
Her boyfriend posted on Instagram a week ago: ‘Doing everything I can to try and find her, I haven’t slept since she’s been missing and I physically cannot sleep or function without her I’m worse than ever right now and I need her to be here and safe.
Mother Chantel Oakley said she last saw her when her daughter came to wake her up May 7
She had reportedly texted her boyfriend Haydn at 10.30pm and friends until midnight. She then reportedly attempted to video call her boyfriend around 5.40am via Facebook Messenger on May 8.
‘I can’t go any longer without her I just want her with me right now I’ve been worried to death and I just need something to make me feel better but she’s the only one who can do that.. I really hope you’re ok baby just please be safe.’
Police teams searched the area for her and said they were also looking for a possible suspect in the week following her disappearance.
Then on Wednesday a group of 300 volunteers began hunting in collaboration with agencies from Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia Natural Resources Police discovered a corpse on North Mountain at the 5500 block of Tuscarora Pike in Berkeley County.
While the body has not been identified as Crossman, cops do believe she is dead.
An autopsy will confirm whether it is the Berkeley Springs girl.
McCauley was taken into custody Thursday after being under surveillance at his job in Berkeley County since last week. He agreed to go to the station and was arrested there.
Morgan County Sheriff K.C. Bohrer said they had no other reason to suspect others in the case of the missing teen. He alongside Chief John Walter, Deputy Luke Shambaugh, Cpl. Fred Edwards and Cpl. Janette See responded to the scene of the discovered remains.
Wednesday a group of 300 volunteers joined the hunt with West Virginia-area agents. Thursday a decomposed body was found on Tuscarora Pike in Berkeley County and cops believe it is Crossman
Former teacher who is a pastor, Josh Rider, said she was able to love and compassion to kids
Police are waiting to find out the cause of death and how long the body had been there.
Her school said it was providing counselors to help students process Crossman’s disappearance and possible death.
Thursday evening also saw a prayer vigil take place at Berkeley Springs State Park.
‘We wanted a better outcome,’ Sheriff Bohrer said about locating the remains of who they believe is the Berkeley Springs High School girl. He said McCauley will be charged with murder.
A friend named Jada told LocalDVM.com: ‘She posted online a bit about how she thinks that no one cared about her. So seeing all of this probably would have made her feel so cared about.’
Her former teacher who is a pastor, Josh Rider, said at the gathering: ‘She was able to love, show compassion to kids, that I wish all students could do at her age when I had her in sixth grade.
‘We come today acknowledging that we have lost an individual that we loved, but we come together as a family, and as a community and we are binded together by the Lord and the love that we have for one another.’
A GoFundMe page described Crossman as an ‘exuberant, dependable’ girl.
Buffy Ross lights a candle Thursday during a vigil at Berkeley Springs State Park
More than 300 people attended the vigil to remember Crossman on Thursday evening
It said her father Lance Crossman and stepmother Jess have been positively humbled by the outpouring of love and support to help bring Riley home safely.
The page noted none of the family members had worked since the child vanished.
While they were not asking for monetary donations themselves, the family member who created the crowdfunding page wanted to raise money ‘so that Riley can come home to her normal life, and so that her siblings in each household can live as normally as possible while they are exhausting all efforts to bring their big sister home’.
By Friday they had raised $3,845 of a $10,000 goal towards flyer printing, meals, fuel, postage and advertising fees.
If anyone has any information, please call the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department at 304-258-1067.
If anyone has any information, call the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department at 304-258-1067