Lunsford may have been buried alive
Officials: Couey confessed to investigators
(CNN) -- A convicted sex offender facing capital murder charges in the killing of a 9-year-old Florida girl told investigators he buried her alive, law enforcement sources told CNN Friday night.
John Evander Couey, 46, who officials said confessed to the crimes, is charged with capital murder, burglary with battery, kidnapping and sexual battery on a child younger than 12.
Couey has a 30-year criminal history, and his case prompted more debate over the rights of sexual predators.
Jessica Marie Lunsford was discovered missing from her Homosassa home on February 24 by her father.
Her body was found almost a month later -- buried within sight of her own home -- behind the house where Couey was staying with his half-sister.
The Citrus County Sheriff's Office had no comment on the information released Friday night.
Investigators say Couey took her from her bedroom on February 23.
A preliminary medical examiner's report last month said Jessica died from asphyxiation after being sexually assaulted.
Sources have told CNN that investigators are still trying to confirm the burial information and other statements Couey made to police, and are awaiting results of the full autopsy, expected in about a month.
Law enforcement officers and hundreds of volunteers from around the country combed Citrus County -- north of Tampa -- for the girl, who lived with her father and grandparents.
Earlier Friday, prosecutors said the girl police believe was assaulted and slain by a convicted sex offender living in a neighboring home, might still have been alive when police visited that home during a canvass of the neighborhood, according to documents released by prosecutors.
Police twice visited the half-sister's home while interviewing residents during the search for Jessica.
"Couey's timeline after the events after he kidnapped Jessica Lunsford leaves open the possibility that she was alive, and in the house, at the time of the first, and possibly the second, interview," said a memo released by prosecutors.
Four other people in the half-sister's home were arrested -- one on charges of nonpayment of child support and three on suspicion of obstruction of justice.
Those three people were accused of failing to tell police that Couey was living there, even though they knew there was a warrant out for his arrest for violating his probation by failing to update his address as required for sex offenders.
But that alone, prosecutors said, did not constitute a crime. They have declined to file formal charges against the three.
"There is no statutory provision which requires an individual to notify an officer of the whereabouts of someone for whom there is an outstanding warrant, or of the presence of a sex offender," the memo said.
Police have said there was no evidence the three people knew of Jessica's kidnapping.
However, "had the defendant (one of the three) disclosed Couey's presence in the house, the life of the girl might have been saved," the prosecutors' memo said.
CNN's Susan Candiotti contributed to this report.
