He sobbed to 911 that girl vanished as he slept. Then searchers found a shallow grave

A North Carolina man who sobbed to a 911 dispatcher that his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter had disappeared while he slept, was found guilty on Monday of murder by torture in her death.

“Jordyn, please come out!” Billy Joseph McCullen shouted during his 911 call in August 2016, The Charlotte Observer reported at the time.

McCullen then told the dispatcher: “She’s not here, she’s not here ... I don’t know where my daughter is!”

Searchers found the remains of 3-year-old Jordyn Ann Dumont the next day near her home in the 1900 block of Bess Town Road, off N.C. 279 north of Bessemer City in Gaston County. She was found in a shallow grave in woods, The Observer reported.

On Monday, McCullen was sentenced to life in prison without parole after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder by torture, shortly after closing arguments in the case, Observer news partner WBTV reported.

An autopsy showed Jordyn was hit so hard that she had “cuts and bleeding” in her organs, The Gaston Gazette reported.

“We get justice for Jordyn, and we find out what actually happened to her,” Jordyn’s father, Josh Kinnett, told WSOC-TV after the verdict.

This story was originally published July 30, 2018 at 6:46 PM.