A 37-year-old man from Farmers Branch has been charged with capital murder in connection with the deaths of a 30-year-old woman and her 10-year-old daughter.

Fionna Olander and her daughter, Korryn Threadgill, both of Addison, were found Tuesday morning in a ditch near Post Oak Bend, a community of several hundred people in Kaufman County.

The arrested man, Martin McKee, had dated Olander, who also went by the name of Barbara, off and on for two years, according to James "Mike" Olander, Fionna's father.

"This is a terrible, terrible nightmare and I want somebody to pinch me and wake me the hell up," Olander said Thursday.

Olander said he knew something was wrong Tuesday when his eldest daughter's boss called and said she hadn't shown up for work as a technology support operator at a computer company.

His worry mounted when he checked her apartment and went to his granddaughter's elementary school, where he learned Korryn was also absent. He then went to McKee's apartment to see if they were there. Neither McKee or his daughter was home.

Police asked Mike Olander to file a missing person's report, he said. But when no missing child alert was issued, he realized, "This isn't looking good. If they're not issuing an Amber Alert, they must know something."

The next evening, he and Korryn's father, who declined to be interviewed, were asked to identify two bodies that had been found in Kaufman County.

Law enforcement authorities have not shared their theory of the crime with him, Olander said, and he hasn't pressed for details.

"Tuesday, my thrust was to find my babies," he said. "That's all I wanted to know is where my babies were."

Pat Laney, spokeswoman for the Kaufman County Sheriff's Department, said the cause of death had not been determined, and it is not known where the crime occurred. McKee and Olander had no known connection to the area.

McKee was arrested in Farmers Branch and jailed briefly before being transported to Kaufman County on Thursday.

A relative of McKee contacted in Oklahoma had not heard the news of his arrest and declined to comment. But Olander said he was not surprised McKee has been charged in their deaths.

"It seems to be the right fit," he said, noting that McKee has a criminal record.

McKee spent six years in prison for impersonating a public servant in Denton County and a charge of retaliation in Tarrant County. He was released on mandatory supervision in 2004 and removed from parole four years later.

The bodies of Olander and her daughter were found by a local resident who was jogging with her dogs. Residents of tiny Post Oak Bend are relieved someone has been apprehended in the crime, said Mayor Raymond Bedrick.

They've been waiting on the sheriff to make an arrest, Bedrick said, "so we could get some peace about it."

The murders are the third and fourth in Kaufman County this year, Laney said.

Peace will be a long time coming for Olander.

"This is not going to hit me completely until I get my babies put to rest," he said. "Then I'll have time to grieve."