Posted on 11/11/2007 11:10:08 PM PST by McCoMo
Sheriff: Men confess to crime
By Debbie Robinson
news@joplinglobe.com
STELLA, Mo. — Both defendants in the brutal rape and murder of 9-year-old Rowan Ford have confessed to the crime, the Newton County sheriff said Sunday.
David Spears, 25, of Stella, and Chris Collings, 32, of Wheaton, are charged with one count each of first-degree murder, forcible rape and statutory rape in the girl’s death. Spears is Rowan’s stepfather.
Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland said investigators allege that Rowan was abducted early Nov. 3 from her home in Stella in Newton County, murdered in Barry County, and her body dumped in a sinkhole in McDonald County.
After a nearly weeklong search for the girl, Copeland said, Collings confessed Friday to Wheaton police Chief Clint Clark. Spears was arrested a short time later.
“Both confessed to raping and strangling her,” Copeland said.
Clark did not return a phone call Sunday. The Barry County sheriff’s office in Cassville said Sheriff Mick Epperly would have no updates on the case until Tuesday.
Investigators are continuing to work on determining what happened the night Rowan was abducted from her home, Copeland said.
David Spears has provided conflicting information to investigators since Spears and Rowan’s mother, Colleen Spears, reported the girl missing about 6:50 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3, Copeland said.
During the search for Rowan, Copeland said, David Spears rode around with another man.
“He (Spears) was pointing out to this man where would be good places to put a body,” Copeland said.
One of those places was the sinkhole in McDonald County where the girl’s body ultimately was found, the sheriff said.
“It’s about 15 to 20 feet down, and it was getting dark,” Copeland said of the time David Spears reportedly pointed out the site during the search.
Rowan’s body was found the next morning, which was Friday, by McDonald County deputies Jake Boles and Mike Hall in the sinkhole near Powell.
According to reports, Colleen Spears last saw her daughter at about 8:30 p.m. Nov. 2 before she left for work at the Wal-Mart store in Jane.
David Spears, Collings and another man were playing pool at the Spears home in the town of Stella in southern Newton County while Rowan was asleep in her bedroom, Copeland said.
The three men decided to leave at 10:45 p.m. to take Collings home, Copeland said.
“They stopped so a man named Nathan and David could get more beer,” he said.
Copeland said Nathan reportedly dropped David Spears off at the Spears residence.
That’s where the story gets murky, Copeland said.
Authorities said David Spears has acknowledged that he went out a second time around 1:30 a.m. Nov. 3 after calling his mother, Myrna Spears, and asking to borrow her car. Myrna Spears has said she watched television and did not check on the girl. David Spears was gone for 5 1/2 hours.
Copeland said Sunday that David Spears has told investigators that he discovered Rowan missing before he called his mother.
“He said he knew Chris (Collings) would have her (Rowan),” Copeland said.
He said Spears has said that after borrowing his mother’s car, he drove to Collings’ travel trailer, where he alleged that he found Collings raping the girl.
Both men are suspected of raping and strangling the girl with a netting cord, Copeland said.
David Spears initially told investigators that he did not discover Rowan was missing until the next morning, after Colleen Spears arrived home from work.
“We had three different cadaver dogs hit on (Myrna Spears’) car,” Copeland said. “We know the body was in there at some point.”
The two defendants are expected to be arraigned Tuesday in Barry County Circuit Court. Both men were being held Sunday without bond in the Barry County Jail.
Myrna Spears said Sunday that she has not talked to her son since his arrest on Friday.
David Spears and Collings, who grew up in the Wheaton area, have been friends for about 10 years, Myrna Spears said.
She said Collings recently returned from Arkansas, where his estranged wife and two children, both younger than 10, live.
Myrna Spears said she thought she knew Collings, and never suspected that he or her son would be capable of murder and rape.
Copeland said Sunday that Spears and Collings recently had been working for a property owner on construction of a barn in McDonald County.
Neither man is listed as a registered sex offender, Copeland said.
Copeland said Collings, who lived in the travel trailer about a mile east of Wheaton, had been making a living by working odd jobs and selling scrap metal.
Services
Funeral services for Rowan Ford will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Gospel Lighthouse Church in Neosho. Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Clark Funeral Home in Neosho, where the family will receive friends from 5 to 7 p.m. A memorial fund has been established. Donations may be made at any Hometown Bank.
Yes, for a funeral fund I agree with you, poor thing at least deserves that. But I don’t like the mother, I have a feeling that she knew more about Spears than what she says, and she would rather put her child in danger than divorce him. Also, she is 44, he is what, 23? Doesnt that strike her as a bit odd, that a 23 year old guy would go for an older woman like that? Just like Chester Stiles, remember his ex said that he only dated older women, who also happened to have KIDS?
The judge entered a 'not guilty' plea for Spears & Collings at yesterday's hearing. That is not a 'formal' plea, according to what I read yesterday. As of yesterday neither has a lawyer & both are asking for public defenders. Also, kidnapping charges will almost certainly be filed vs one or both at a later date & in a different county. Also, the murder/ rape charges are in flux pending outcome of forensics.
Also--again from what I've read--their so-called 'confessions' are not considered formal confessions, either.
Does seem rather odd to me also. I wouldn't even think of dating let alone marrying a man with that much of an age difference between us. What on earth would they have in common?
Exactly, and I saw that on her myspace page she has Collings as one of her top friends, so that means that she had to have seen his perverted sick page. What kind of mother leaves her daughter with a man like that? I know that technically Rowan was left with the stepdad, but I have a strong feeling that she knew that Collings would be hanging out at the house. Meaning she knew he would be around her daughter. I know people will probably get on my case about prejudging, but she seriously disgusts me. So many people put their love lives before the needs of their children, poor kids, I cant imagine having a mother like that.
I am not going to prejudge you as I tend to agree with you. I don't understand why people her age find the need to have myspace or hang out with people so much younger then themselves. I waited a really long time to bring my now husband around my children. I can't tell you how many of my friends would bring a man asap around their children. Then the relationship would end & the kids are the ones who suffer. I guess I am just overly protective about my children. IMHO you can't be too safe anymore. Too many strange people out there!
Question....
Assuming there is a difference between 'cadaver' dogs and 'tracking' dogs...how long after death...this time of year [temperature-wise] does a dead body scent different from a live person?
I'm just wondering if these dogs were tracking dogs who were given a scent of the little girl's clothing, etc., and not 'cadaver' dogs at all.
Good questions. I’m not sure what the answers would be.
Thanks for raising them.
Having no way of knowing how accurate he was, I remember that on Fox News they were discussing another recent missing child, and someone asked this very question. The forensic pathologist said that it begins immediately. Sorry I can't remember the doctor's name.
Just now catching up on this thread.
I’m not a member of MySpace, and non of the links to these three pages, that I’d seen before, had opened for me. Kinda glad they didn’t now!
I didn’t read at Collings’ site - the pics were disgusting enough...just made a quick scroll down, and noticed one interesting post near the bottom of the page.
It was posted near a small picture of what I took to be a couple of young guys whom I supposed to be the ones who posted it, but I didn’t really stay long enough to focus on them. The post was a picture of a little girl holding a flower and peaking around a door. The caption was “just peaking in to see how you’re doing...”. That was the only decent picture I saw on the page, and the implications are chilling considering what he did to Rowan.
It made me especially sick because I’ve used that same little picture to check in on people on my prayer list. I won’t be able to use it again - it just won’t mean the same anymore.
Well, it surprised me...since the poor little girl’s body was transported only a couple of hours after her demise, in the middle of the night...in November.
Nothing that exactly answers your question but very interesting article on the development of pseudoscents for training Search & Cadaver dogs here:
http://discovermagazine.com/1996/mar/thefakesmellofde714
Did you read the comments at the bottom of the article you posted in #88?
One of the posters mentioned that the older daughter had left the home because the stepfather had bee making moves on her.
"Five to fifteen minutes after death....."
Yes—I saw that. And I’d read something similar somewhere else w/in the last day or two.
And a lot of cadaver dogs are cross-trained...thinking here of the shock/ distress adrenaline smell that would linger?
Gotta’ make a grocery/ lunch run.
So...it IS true that 'dogs can smell fear'.
Brief reading about cadaver dogs says that their noses are so sensitive that their training helps them to discover bodies even under running water.
I know there are stories of dogs that were able to sense illnesses in their owners before the person knew they were ill. I would imagine there is a difference in the smell of a corpse fairly quickly after death, but don’t know for certain.
Thanks....
That said sense the end of slavery (mostly, and that's getting better as nations like Cambodia pick themselves up and refuse to let this continue, e.g. Garry Glitter) and the onset of sanity regarding trusting preachers (and other 'helpful' people) near your kids at least it's mostly out in the open.
There ain't no justice on this earth, that's for sure. You don't have to be scared to watch your kids like a hawk, they need watching for plenty of other reasons anyhow.
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