JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — A southwestern Missouri murder defendant has been ordered to stand trial on charges that he sexually abused a girl.

The Joplin Globe reports that 33-year-old TerryRay Lynn Riggle has waived his right to a preliminary hearing in Jasper County. That’s where he’s charged with two counts of first-degree statutory sodomy and a single count of first-degree statutory rape.

Prosecutors allege that Riggle abused the girl when she was 7 years old in Carterville. The girl is now 9.

Riggle and his girlfriend also are charged with first-degree murder in the death of her husband, Jonny Slater.

Slater had been missing since September 2014 before his body was found in June in an old mine shaft near Carterville.

Riggle has pleaded not guilty to the charges.