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An Illinois man faces murder charges after a teenager who lived around the corner was found beaten to death in a roadside ditch on Friday, authorities said.
Steven Butler III, a 14-year-old from Champaign, Illinois, was reported missing by his father Thursday night.
According to the nonprofit Missing Person Awareness Network, the teenager left the house around 5 p.m. Thursday. Police said in a statement the father reported her missing about two and a half hours later.
Daryl Vandyke has a criminal record dating back to 1986.
(Champaign County Correctional Center)
Police searched the neighborhood and undertook further investigative efforts to locate Steven without success.
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At around 7 a.m. on Friday, two cyclists found a body about 2 km away, police said. Investigators determined it was Steven’s.
With help from the local sheriff’s department, police identified Daryl Vandyke, 55, as a person of interest and arrested him at 11 a.m.
Prior to obtaining a warrant for the murder charge, police arrested him under a pending warrant in Douglas County, the Champaign Police Department said in a statement.
After taking him into custody, police said they found “a potential crime scene” and obtained a search warrant for a private residence, where they recovered more evidence.
This evidence led to charges of first degree murder, the statement said.
Vandyke was an acquaintance of Steven’s father, Champaign County state attorney Julia Rietz told News-Gazette, a local newspaper. She also said the cause of death appeared to be blunt trauma and an autopsy was scheduled for Monday.
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Champaign County Jail records show Vandyke has a criminal record dating back to 1986, including an allegation of sexual abuse and more than a dozen drug-related charges.
He was being held there on $ 2 million bail.
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