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.
As far as I am aware, they have made confessions, but have not plead guilty. They entered no plea at their arraignment. They have no legal counsel and have filed for a public defender.
Decomp would begin immediately. However, keep in mind that she was in a cave, where it is cool to begin with.. and for most of the last week we were having a cold snap. Not so cold as to prevent decomp.. but would slow it down somewhat.
Often, the wife either knows or does not want to know, because she doesn't want to lose the man over it (for either financial or emotional reasons)
It's not necessarily strange that a younger guy would date an older woman. When I was 24, I dated a woman who was 39. (Then again she was a VERY cute 39 year old actress).
But for the average 44 year old woman with a young child, there are not very many men who would have been interested in dating her. Being desperate to keep him may have resulted in her being careless about the threat to her daughter
There was blood on this corpse, too. And the bowels & bladder void soon after death.
This happens more often that we know about, or would like to know, IMO.
My wife’s bio-father was a serial pedophile. He molested her, from the age of 6 until 11, as well as her brothers, and 88 other children. He did stuff like by a swimming pool, and then got his children to bring other kids over, ostensibly to play in the pool, but really to molest them. He brought pedophile buddies over to his house so he could share his kids with them (how the hell does one network with other pedophiles?). My wife dealt with a lot of guilt about bringing other kids over, and it was difficult to get her to understand that being a little girl, she was not responsible. Last I knew, he was still locked up in an Oklahoma prison. Never met him, and I better never meet him in the future. Anyway, there is no way anyone can convince me that her mother knew nothing about this during all those years.
Then, her mom married another real scumbag, who later raped my wife when she was about 14. Her mother did not give a damn about her kids, and used my wife basically as a lil slave, until I met her. They hate my guts for a couple reasons. I took their lil servant away, and when they tried to fill her head with BS such as how she could not legally move out until she was 21, I told her the truth. Perhaps another reason they hate me has something to do with me taking a baseball bat to the SOB one day, and putting his ass in the hospital for 2 months. They had come to our house, when my wife was 7 months pregnant with our first son, started an argument, and ended up attacking my wife. He got hospitalized, and my mother-in-law is now sporting a new set of teeth.
My wife has, since then, not spoken to her mother for over 20 years.. and we plan to keep it that way.
Her mother once said, after her first husband got sent up, that if she remarried, she would never divorce again... NO MATTER WHAT. She has lived up to that, and is still married to the scumbag. There is a small measure of justice, however, since now, none of her children speak to her, she never see’s her grandkids, he has turned into a worse drunk who beats on her, and she is the only one working, supporting his worthless ass.
One day, I shall piss on her grave.
I was definitely not trying to say that all men who date older women are child molestors, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I think there were signs that he was not the model stepfather. Maybe not each sign alone would be suspicious, but when there are several signs together, a mother should be cautious enough to, at the very least, not leave the person alone with the child. The story I read about an abuse call being placed regarding Rowan makes me even more certain of the fact that this woman let her child be killed.
Correction...
by a swimming
is supposed to be BUY a swimming pool.
I'm so glad they had three separate dogs hit on that car in order to find the beginning of the trail.
Have you heard any more about Spear's mother possibily being arrested since this morning?
No.. I have been combing the news services and talking to people around here who are usually in the loop. So far, nothing. The rumor is still floating, but no verification yet. Local cops are keeping tight-lipped.
Where's that wild applause graphic when I need it...?
Often? I refuse to believe that.
Seems there is one common thread in virtually ALL of these guys. Violence.
The wife and the entire family fears they will be killed.
Either that, or they've been mentally and emotionally neutered...which I guess is what you implied above.
;^)
Did anyone notice that Colleen last checked her myspace on Nov. 3?? The day her child was missing when she was supposedly looking for her?
Well, more often than not, that is a good thing.
Well, I cannot speak to other cases, but I can tell you that in the case of my wife’s mother, it is purely denial. She refuses to believe that which all evidence indicates happened, and it is purely because of her need to have a man. The rest of her family has told me a great deal about it. When her first husband got sent to the pen, she immediately began hitting the bars and such, leaving her kids with the grandparents.. and she openly stated that she was hunting for a husband. Virtually every nite she would drag one scumbag or another home.
Some women have a strong dependancy for a man in their life, any man, no matter how much of a lowlife they are. These women have serious issues regarding their own self-worth, and seem to base their self-worth in a man.
I have no clue as to why my mother-in-law turned out as she did. My wife’s grandparents are the nicest, most decent people you could ever meet, and their other daughters are (other than an obsession with materialism on the part of one of them) quite normal and decent people.
All the stuff my wife endured, and yet she is one of the most caring people you will ever meet. She is one of those people who worries herself sick over the problems of other people. I have always been amazed that she turned out as good as she did, knowing what I know of her childhood.
You should see how indignant my wife gets when she hears some scumbag justifying their bad acts by claiming they had a bad childhood. Few people have more justification than my wife does, and yet she turned out to be a decent human being.
She is wonderful... I do not deserve her.
No I had not noticed that. While I am not sure what to make of it, it is interesting.
Yes, I read that horrible description of the condition of her little body when they found it in the cave.
It just breaks my heart to know how she was treated, and especially in the last hours of her sweet life. I think about the comments describing her love for people, and loving to go to church, etc. To know that they desecrated, and put that child through such torture, and then threw her lifeless little body down that deep hole in the ground is...well, it is pure evil.
I hope the image of her little face looking up at him in the moonlight just before he strangled her haunts him every minute for the rest of his life. And, the stepdad...there are no words.
That is happening & its so sad. I can't imagine if my mother looked the other way if that was happening to me. I just feel so sad & depressed over these stories. Prayers for all the children...
I noticed it. A couple of things to consider: Could the log-in dates be based on GMT? Missouri is GMT +6 hrs, IIRC. So she could have logged in the evening of Nov 2--before she went to work and it would register as Nov 3 GMT. (I'm pretty much MySpace ignorant.)
Another thing that I thought is that she might have logged in to see if Rowan had left or sent her a message.
Or maybe she was looking for Chris as he was one of her buddies? Maybe by that time she “knew” something?
I have no idea about myspace times either...just took for granted they were the right times according to time zones.
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