Bonne Terre, Missouri — A 49-year-old man died by lethal injection Tuesday night after serving years on death row for kidnapping, sexually assaulting, and murdering a 9-year-old girl in 2007.
The Associated Press says that Christopher Collings died nine minutes after receiving pentobarbital on Tuesday, December 3. He was condemned to death in 2012 for the first-degree murder of Rowan Ford.
Collings’ fatal injection was the fourth execution in the state this year. On December 2, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson refused Collings’ clemency request and indicated the death sentence will proceed as planned. Parson described Collings’ acts as “abhorrent” and stated that there “is not and never has been any doubt about Collings’ involvement or the heinousness of his crime.”
According to court filings, Collings spent the summer and fall of 2007 in Stella, Missouri, with Ford’s mother, Colleen Munson, and stepfather, David Spears. Collings and Spears were good friends, and Ford even addressed Collings as “Uncle Chris.”
On November 2, 2007, Collings, Spears, and their friend Nathan Mahurin went to Spears’ residence for drinks. Munson went for work around 8:30 p.m. and instructed Spears to keep an eye on Ford. The men drank all evening until Mahurin and Spears took Collings home, leaving Ford alone. The three males smoked marijuana and continued to consume alcohol in Collings’ trailer. Mahurin drove Spears home before returning to his own house.
Munson arrived home at 9 a.m. on November 3 and couldn’t find her daughter anywhere. She eventually reported Ford missing that afternoon, and all three men became persons of interest. Collings met with investigators who “described Collings as cooperative, concerned, and polite.” He even invited Munson to join the search for the girl. Collings met with a police chief he was friendly with, but the chief stated that Collings did not appear to be his “normal self.” The police chief, Clinton Clark, collaborated with the FBI and encouraged Collings to continue cooperating.
During one interaction with Clark, Collings “began to cry and stated that he always loved Rowan and would not have done anything to hurt her.”
On November 9, 2007, investigators located Ford’s body at the bottom of a sinkhole in the woods. The small girl was naked from the waist down, with a ligature mark around her neck and other injuries.
Collings told Clark that he drove back to Ford’s house after Spears and Mahurin left. He kidnapped her, drove her back to his trailer, and sexually assaulted her. According to Collings, he “did not speak to Rowan so she would not recognize his voice and kept the lights off so that she would not see him.”
He brought Ford outside to bring her home, but when she saw Collings, she “freaked out.” Collings took chicken wire from a neighboring truck and strangled her to death. Collings felt he “was in a lot of trouble,” so he went to the sinkhole and dropped Ford’s body in. I “tried to pull some branches and limbs over to cover the entrance to the sinkhole, but it was too big and the debris fell inside.”
When Collings went home, he torched Ford’s clothing and mattress. Chief Clark drove him to the nearest police station, where he was arrested and charged with murder and rape.
Collings appealed his 2012 conviction and sentence, but the appeals court upheld the verdict. He took it to the Missouri Supreme Court, which upheld the lower court’s decision.
According to USA Today, a jury found Spears guilty of child endangerment and obstruction of justice.
Collings wrote in his final statement, “Right or wrong, I accept the situation for what it is. I apologize to everybody I have wounded in this life. I hope you can find closure and move on, no matter which side of the circumstance you are on. You are in my prayers, and I hope to see you in heaven someday.
Collings’ attorneys stated that he was “taken too early from this Earth,” and that they share Chris’ desire that his death give some closure for the victim’s family and that others who were harmed by him be able to move on. What happened tonight, however, was an act of revenge that will not define Chris or how we remember him.”
In his statement announcing the execution, Parson stated: “Mr. Collings has received every protection afforded by the Missouri and United States constitutions, and Mr. Collings’ conviction and sentence remain for his horrendous and callous crime.”
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