BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) 鈥� Rowan Ford knew as 鈥淯ncle Chris鈥� after he spent several months living with her family. On Tuesday, Collings was executed for sexually assaulting and killing the child, then dumping her body in a sinkhole outside a small Missouri town.
Collings, 49, was put to death with a single dose of pentobarbital on Tuesday evening at the state prison in Bonne Terre, Missouri. The execution was the 23rd in the U.S. this year and the fourth in Missouri. Only Alabama with six and Texas with five have performed more executions in 2024.
Collings spoke with a spiritual adviser who was at his side as the process began. Shortly thereafter, the inmate appeared to breathe heavily and swallow hard. After a few seconds, all movement stopped. He was officially declared dead nine minutes after the injection.
Collings鈥� fate was sealed Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court turned aside an appeal and Republican Gov. Mike Parson denied clemency.
鈥淩ight or wrong I accept this situation for what it is,鈥� Collings said in a written final statement. 鈥淭o anyone that I have hurt in this life I am sorry. I hope that you are able to get closure and move on.鈥� He added, 鈥淚 hope to see you in heaven one day.鈥�
Parson, in a statement, said he hopes that 鈥渁ll those who knew and loved Rowan may find peace in knowing that justice has been done.鈥�
Rowan was a fourth-grader described by teachers at Collings鈥� trial as a hard-working and happy student, a lover of Barbie who had her room painted pink. Collings was a friend of Rowan鈥檚 stepfather, David Spears, and lived for several months in 2007 at the home Rowan shared with her mother, Colleen Munson, and Spears. Collings sometimes helped Rowan with her homework.
Collings told authorities that he drank heavily and smoked marijuana with Spears and another man in the hours before the attack on Rowan, according to court records. Collings said he picked up the still-sleeping child from her bed, took her to the camper where he lived, and assaulted her.
Collings planned to take Rowan back home, leading her outside the camper facing away from him so that she couldn鈥檛 identify him, he said in his confession. But when moonlight lit up the darkness, Rowan was able to see Collings, he told police. He said he 鈥渇reaked out,鈥� grabbed a rope from a nearby pickup truck, and strangled her.
Munson returned home from work at 9 a.m. on Nov. 3 and was alarmed when she couldn鈥檛 find Rowan, walking the neighborhood looking for her. Court records said Spears insisted Rowan was at a friend鈥檚 house. But when Rowan failed to return home by the afternoon, the mother called the police, prompting a massive search.
Collings, Spears and the third man became the focus of police attention because they were the last people seen at Rowan鈥檚 home. Collings confessed to the crime and told police that after killing Rowan, he took the body to a sinkhole. He burned the rope used in the attack, along with the clothes he was wearing and his blood-stained mattress, prosecutors said.
Court documents and the clemency petition said Spears also implicated himself in the crimes. A transcript of Spears鈥� statement to police, cited in the clemency petition, said Spears told police that Collings handed him a cord and Spears killed Rowan.
鈥淚 choke her with it. I realize she鈥檚 gone. She鈥檚 ... she鈥檚 really gone,鈥� Spears said, according to the transcript. Meanwhile, court documents said it was Spears who led authorities to the sinkhole where the body was found.
But Spears was allowed to plead to lesser charges. It wasn鈥檛 clear why. Prosecutors at the original trial didn鈥檛 respond to messages seeking comment.
Spears served more than seven years in prison before being released in 2015. No phone listing for him could be found.
Collings鈥� attorney, Jeremy Weis, said the inmate was a loving father and a changed man in prison and didn't deserve to die, despite his crimes.
鈥淲e share Chris's desire that his death will provide a measure of closure for the victim's family and that the people hurt by him will be able to carry on,鈥� Weis said in a statement. 鈥淲hat occurred today, though, was an act of vengeance, but it will not define Chris, nor will it be how we remember him.鈥�
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The last name of the victim鈥檚 mother has been corrected to Munson, not Spears.
Jim Salter, The Associated Press
