Man gets life for kidnapping and killing 4-year-old girl in 1986

LEXINGTON COUNTY, S.C. (TCD) -- A 63-year-old man will spend the rest of his life in prison for abducting and killing his ex-girlfriend’s young daughter nearly 37 years ago. The Lexington County Sheriff’s Office announced Feb. 8 that a judge sentenced Thomas McDowell to life in prison for first-degree burglary, kidnapping, and murder in connection with the disappearance and death of 4-year-old Jessica Gutierrez, who went missing from her South Lake Drive home in June 1986 and has never been found. McDowell was handed two concurrent life sentences after a jury convicted him of t