Revealed: Parents of girl, 6, found dead under a tarp in the street are in a polyamorous relationship with another man - but police insist the 'three' parents are NOT prime suspects

The parents of a six-year-old girl who was found dead under a tarp in the street are in a polyamorous relationship with another man - but police said none of the three are prime suspects in her death.

Alanna Gallagher was found dead last week a mile-and-a-half from the Saginaw, Texas home she shared with her parents Karl and Laura Gallagher, a second man - Miles McDaniel - and her siblings.

Laura Gallagher wrote on her blog that she and Karl Gallagher were in a 'polyamorous' relationship with 37-year-old McDaniel, and he is named as one of Alanna's parents in her obituary.

'The three of us': A Facebook image shows Laura and Karl (left) Gallagher with Miles McDaniel (right), who are in a polyamorous relationship

Little angel: Alanna Gallagher was found bound and killed under a tarp a mile and a half from her home



Investigators probing her death seized more than 100 items from the family's home, but said none of the three parents are prime suspects. However, Saginaw Police Chief Roger Macon added that no one has been eliminated as a suspect, The Star-Telegram reported.



Officers took items from the home as well as from three vehicles parked outside.

A search warrant shows they were looking for red duct tape, packaging, Walmart plastic bags, trash bags, men's belts sized 38-44 and any material that could be used to bind.



Macon added that officers were not judging the par ent s' polyamorous relationship.

'The Gallagher/McDaniel family considers Miles as a parent, and we are being considerate of their lifestyle; it's not our place to offer judgment on them,' Macon said.



Horror: Her body was found bound and naked under this plastic tarp in Saginaw, Texas, outside Fort Worth

Family: Alanna is seen with her defense contractor father Karl, her mother Laura and her two older siblings 'Father and daughter': Miles McDaniel, pictured, is named on Alanna's obituary as one of her parents 'As with any criminal investigation, each of the people closest to the victim is being considered, and their actions investigated.' Police say the Gallaghers and McDaniel were all home while Alanna played outside alone on Monday evening.

Officers are not sure when she was abducted from her neighborhood, but neighbors saw her playing in the street and in her yard by herself.

Her body was found about 7.30pm. Her father did not report her missing for another two hours after that.

At a news conference, police spokesman Damon Ing said investigators are tracking down several leads and have already received numerous tips about the disappearance of little Alanna - but they need to public's help to find her killer.

Loss: Neighbors said Alanna, pictured with her older siblings, always seemed far smarter than other children her age and always seemed to ask mature questions

Missed: Neighbors said the often saw the girl riding her scooter down her street in the quiet neighborhood



They are also still searching for a red pickup truck with a green splotch that could be involved in the her murder.

More than 100 people showed up for a candle-light vigil at a nearby Methodist church Tuesday night to pray for little Alanna. Residents also started a make-shift memorial on a curb near where her body was found. By Tuesday night, the line of stuffed animals, flowers and cards stretched half the block. Neighbors say the inquisitive girl with 'curly brown hair and a constant smile' loved to play alone outside in her front yard - but was cautious to always tell strangers they had to keep away. 'She seemed smarter than the average (child her age), just because of the questions she’d always ask,' neighbor John Janus told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram .

'And her parents are nice and very, very smart people. They like books. The last time I was in their home, the front room looked like a library.'

Searching: Police executed a search warrant on the girl's parents' home following her murder. The house is located about a mile and a half from where the body was found

Mr Janus said he took his children with Alanna and her father on Halloween for the last few years.

According to his Facebook page, Alanna's father Karl Gallagher graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and works as an engineer for a defense contractor. He posted dozens of pictures of his three children on his Facebook page.



'She was a precious little girl. I usually just saw her on her scooter,' neighbor Kay Stief told the Dallas Morning News .



Police and the FBI searched the girl's home for several hours on Tuesday, carrying out boxes of documents and computers.

A police spokesman said they were interviewing the parents - though at they moment they were only trying to confirm the timeline of when the girl was abducted from her home.



The girl's body was found about 7.30pm on Monday by 14-year-old Owen Whiddon, who was riding his scooter through his neighborhood in Saginaw - about a mile and a half from where the girl lived.



This aerial image shows the tarp where the girl's body was found, lower right corner, in the middle of a quiet intersection

Murder: The FBI has joined the investigation after the horrifying discovery. No children from the area have been reported missing, so the case starts with few leads

He said he saw a tarp in the middle of an intersection, tightly rapped with a belt.

'I said, "Well, let’s pick it up, let’s put it in the trash can," you know, because we’re a clean community,' he told the Morning News.



What he found shocked him to his core. He ran back home and told his mother: 'Mom, it’s a little girl.'

Whiddon's friend Josh Smith, 18, told KXAS-TV that he is will never be the same after seeing the girl dead.



'At first, I just thought it was some rubber stuff at first, and then I got a closer look and all I saw was a bag and I saw some hair sticking out and so, I was like, "Oh my God! It’s a girl!"' he said.



'And that’s when I dropped to my knees and just started crying.'

The girl's body was found in Saginaw, Texas, a city of 20,000 outside Forth Worth

Coping: Neighbors quickly set up a makeshift memorial on the curb for the little girl. It was torched along with the family's car Friday

Katie Whiddon, Owen's mother, told KTVT-TV that she didn't believe her son at first. When he convinced her he was telling the truth, she called 911.

'I was panicking. I was freaked out. How can somebody hurt a little girl?' she said.



Ms Whiddon told KDFW-TV that the girl was naked except for a pair of purple underwear and her hands and feet were bound. She had a plastic grocery bag over her head.

Police say they are still not sure when the girl's body was dumped. Some neighbors said they noticed the tarp in the road about noon. Others say they didn't see it until about 7pm.

Neighbors said her father started looking for her about 9pm Tuesday - an hour and a half after he body was found. They recalled him going door-to-door asking if anyone had seen his daughter.



Alanna's father Karl Gallagher made a brief statement to reporters on July 3, asking for people to come forward with information about his daughter's murder

'You could tell on his face, he didn’t know what to do,' Mr Janus, the neighbor, told the Star-Telegram.

'It was like he was in shock and that he didn’t know where else to look.'

Another neighbor, Derinda, told the Morning News that she saw Alanna's mother around that time, too. The neighbor said she didn't seem very worried about her daughter.



Derinda recalls the mother saying: 'I bet she’s over at a neighbor’s home. She always does this.'

About 9.15pm, Mr Janus said he saw Alanna's father walk over to two police cruisers that had parked on his street. He believes that is when the parents reported their young daughter missing.

