KPRC<\/a>, in Houston.<\/p>\nTabitha and her husband, Phillip, described Audrii as happy and kind. <\/p>\n
Their hearts were broken after Audrii was kidnapped and killed by a family friend in February 2024. Her body was eventually found in Lake Livingston. <\/p>\n
They did not know Don Steven McDougal had previously pleaded down charges of indecency with a child, which allowed him to escape a requirement to register as a sex offender. <\/p>\n
A new state law in Audrii\u2019s name aimed at closing loopholes in cases like McDougal\u2019s went into effect on Sept. 1. <\/p>\n
The new law adds child grooming to the list of crimes that require registration and mandates criminals register regardless of a plea deal.<\/p>\n
Advocates at centers like ChildSafe in San Antonio are applauding the law. They said it is crucial the community know about the different types and levels of child abuse. <\/p>\n
\u201cGrooming goes hand-in-hand with child sexual abuse \u2014 because most of the time, when a child has been sexually abused \u2014 grooming has occurred before that physical act has then taken place,\u201d ChildSafe Chief Impact Officer Elizabeth Reeves said. <\/p>\n
Grooming is when a predator builds a trusting relationship with a child or family, making it easier for potential future abuse.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to separate your child to get time alone with them. It can be showing favoritism, as well. That can look like gift giving or paying extra attention to a child,\u201d Reeves said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to discourage loving relationships, but there\u2019s a line. So, we really want parents to understand that, if your child is spending extra time with those adults, is that in the appropriate way?\u201d<\/p>\n
Reeves is proud that Texas has passed this law, which can now hold criminals accountable for any and all of their abusive behaviors. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re having this conversation now because of this law,\u201d Reeves said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to educate the community more because of the law.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIf we help just one other child avoid this kind of a sexual predator, we will have honored her name,\u201d Philip Munsch said. \u201cLet\u2019s save as many kids as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Audrii\u2019s family isn\u2019t stopping here. They said they want similar laws passed in every single state nationwide. <\/p>\n
Reeves said she believes it\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are part of a national group of children\u2019s advocacy centers, and this is conversation that has been happening in children\u2019s advocate centers for a while,\u201d Reeves said. <\/p>\n
In the meantime, anyone who wants to learn more about grooming can go to the ChildSafe website<\/a> where a full training catalog including live webinars, information sheets and more are available. <\/p>\nChildSafe\u2019s training portal also teaches:<\/p>\n
More recent local Texas Legislature coverage on KSAT: <\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Every year as Halloween approaches, some parents begin to check the sex offender registry ahead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2117,2118,2119,287,27,29,293,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-1510","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-audriis-law","9":"tag-child-abuse","10":"tag-grooming","11":"tag-politics","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-headlines","14":"tag-texas-legislature","15":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}