A man was charged Thursday in the death of his girlfriend's seven-year-old daughter who had been left in his care.

The body of Brittany Hendrickson was found Wednesday in an abandoned well in a remote area of Noble County in southern Ohio.

The well was about a mile from her home in the tiny village of Lebanon in Monroe County.

Twenty-nine-year-old Fred Mundt is jailed without bond Thursday night.

Noble County Sheriff Landon Smith says Mundt was charged Thursday with aggravated murder, and an alternate aggravated murder count that carries the death penalty.

The girl's mother reported her missing on Tuesday. She told investigators she'd left her three children in the care of Mundt, her live-in boyfriend, for a few hours.

Smith says a public defender has not yet been appointed for Mundt.