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.
I know...Or the mothers that allow the fathers to beat their children instead of them. Thats how I got my 1st & oldest son at 13 yrs old. He took the beatings so daddy wouldn't hit mommy. I don't understand a mother who allows that. And I don't understand women who need men more then their own flesh & blood. But maybe because I am older I still have that blood is thicker then water idea that was drummed into my head by my parents. I've seen up close what incest does to a girl and thankfully she is fine now.
It took me a very long time before I brought my now husband around my "brood". I knew there would be problems & there were. He had never had children & expected them to behave. They were all teens & weren't happy but now its really good. His rules were what they needed & I had to make myself not interfere with some of his rules. That I think was the hardest part because I was used to dealing with my children my way & I didn't really like him telling them new rules. However to be a real family we all did quite a bit of adjusting. When we had Sassy, I was 41 yrs old & that made everyone come together really well.
Thank you for that information. ~Pandora~
Why is that? Not to get off subject but why do they think that?
Not to be pesky but can you show me any data that it didn't happen less in the past please?
Or should we just agree it does happen & that it is shameful & terrible....And needs to stop & those who commit these crimes need to be punished!
Oh, yup, that’s a good point.
On another point, some of these posts about women who don’t think they can live without a man are so true, and it’s very sad to see the consequences of low standards: time after time another “Mama’s Boyfriend Kills Baby (insert method here)” story.
Of course we are both assuming that they are operating at anything more than the most rudimentary thought processes. The explanation could be nothing more than plain stupidity. They obviously are not the brightest bulbs in the box.
I'm guessing as I'm not from Tulsa.
I suspect the good folks of Tulsa think of themselves as just like a little New York or DC.
They overestimate their own target value. The MSM loves to feed it.
There are people that want you scared on both sides of the isle, they agree on that much.
Coroner: Spears Led Him To Site
Possibilities: Collings kidnapped Rowan w/o Spears knowledge; or Spears & Collings planned the kidnapping.
Possibility: The reason Myrna did not check on Rowan was because she knew Rowan was not in the Spears house. Explains why she came over to Spears' & loaned her truck to her son who did not have a drivers' license & who had been drinking--so Spears could go looking for Rowan.
Problem: If the thing was not planned, then we have a problem of why neither Spears nor his mother did not call the police or seek any other assistance.
Timeline (tentative):
10:45 Spears, Collings, & another man leave Spears house to take Collings home.
Spears & other man get more beer after dropping Collings at his home (approx. 10 miles away).
Midnight/ 12:30 Spears returns home.
1:00 a.m. Spears calls Myrna & asks to borrow her truck.
1:30 a.m. Myrna arrives/ Spears 'goes looking' for Rowan.
6:00-7:00 a.m. Spears returns home; Myrna leaves. Spears goes to sleep on the sofa.
9:00 a.m. Colleen gets home from working night shift; discovers Rowan missing.
What kind of person was the mother? Has she made a statement?
I can’t answer that...did not start following the story until after Rowan’s body was found. And, yes, she did talk to the press around Day 5 of Rowan being missing but don’t know what she said.
She obviously has questionable taste in companion material but, so far as I know, she hasn’t killed anybody so I’m not going to speculate.
I think you hit the nail on the head.
Spears may simply have gone to Collings with his mom's Suburban to pick Rowan up. Then, things turned ugly. Could Collings have convinced Spears that he'd be implicated too, so killing her was the only out..."and while we're at it, you can get some too..."? Sheer speculation on my part. And I'm not trying to make excuses for David Spears.
OTOH, it could have been a set up from the start. Drop Collings off so he could run over to Spears home and get the girl, meanwhile Spears gets rid of Nathan so they both could get together and 'do' the girl (sorry for the cold language...I'm projecting their thought patterns).
Either way, they both buried the girl afterward. McCoMo, I think you were on the mark. I believe Spears wanted to be involved with the authorities finding the girl. I believe he felt this would draw attention away from him ("why would he lead us there if he were implicit?"). Screwed up thinking for sure, but not unreasonable for such idiots.
From what I recall from Luke's thread, Spears' mother is also a drinker. My guess would be Spears told her Rowan was at Collings' and he was going to get her. Or, he told her nothing, and she'd be more interested in watching TV and indulging in some of her son's beer than checking up on Rowan (who, after all, isn't her blood kin anyway).
Anyway, just speculation. But this newest article does raise some interesting questions.
to self: If so, he'd have some 'splainin' to do to his mom when he arrived back home without her.
“It’s interesting the first place Spears leads the Coroner is THE sinkhole.”
This is the only statement I take disagree with. As far as I am aware, the day she was reported missing, Spears was riding around with some friend of his, looking for the girl, while his wife was driving around in a second vehicle doing the same. He is supposed to have shown his buddy numerous places where hiding a body is possible. I am not aware of his showing the coroner anything, nor was this the only place he pointed out.
Sorry, did not see that headling or that article.
Perhaps it is true. But this is totally news to me.
Just read it.. man, that is so wierd.
Sorry I did not catch the article before disagreeing with ya about the coroner thing. I just woke up and was checking out the pings.. shoulda taken them in the order I recieved them rather than working backwards thru the list. Right now, I just do not know what to believe about who, when, or how the timeline of finding the body went down.
It is bad enuf that we get coflicting statements from the persp... thats to be expected. But I wish the authorities would at least get THEIR stories straight.
Of course, some of this could be the newspapers too. One Arkansas paper is reporting that the trailer the little girl was killed in was parked right behind Spears’ house, which we KNOW is completely wrong.
I'm going by this in the article linked in post #88 above: "Newton County Coroner Mark Bridges said David Spears led him to the site where Rowan Ford's body was ultimately discovered the day before that discovery was made.
"In a telephone interview this morning, Bridges said he spent last Thursday with Spears, looking at places where a body could be hidden. The first place they checked was the sink hole locally known as Fox's hole. Both men looked in the sink hole, Bridges said.
"I saw some items that brought some suspicions to me," Bridges said. "I wasn't sure what they were. David and I had a conversation about it at that time. It could have been a blanket, it could have been a piece of paper. I haven't seen the list of items that were brought out of that hole. I've been through so much this past week that until I see the recorded transcript - all of our conversations were recorded - but until I see the transcript, I'm not certain.
"I definitely wanted to search the cave and I think, subconsciously, that David did, too. He took me to the cave for some reason."
While he drove around the day after the kidnapping he also, apparently, drove around with the Coroner the day before the body was found. This, apparently, led to the two officers then visiting the sinkhole the following day.
Please add me to your ping list.
Been happening since the dawn of time. :(
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