A Missouri inmate was executed Tuesday for the 2007 rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl who knew him as “Uncle Chris” — with the killer telling observers he hopes to see them “in heaven one day.”
Christopher Collings, 49, was declared dead nine minutes after he was injected with a single dose of pentobarbital inside a state prison in Bonne Terre — marking the 23rd execution in the US this year.
The father of two was found guilty of the murder of little Rowan Ford, who was sexually assaulted, strangled and dumped in a sinkhole in a small Missouri town.
“Right or wrong I accept this situation for what it is,” Collings said in a written final statement.“To anyone that I have hurt in this life I am sorry. I hope that you are able to get closure and move on.
“I hope to see you in heaven one day,” he added.
His last meal was a bacon cheeseburger, breaded mushrooms, tater tots and a chef salad, the Kansas City Star reported.
Collings was pals with Rowan’s stepfather, David Spears, and lived in the same home as the two and Rowan’s mother, Colleen Munson, for several months in 2007.
One night after heavy drinking and smoking marijuana with Spears and another man, Collings scooped up the child from his bed as she slept and took her to his camper, per court records.
He raped her and then after she saw Collings’ face as he carried her back home, he confessed he “freaked out” and strangled her with a wire.He then put her body in a sinkhole and burned the wire he used, the clothes he had on and a blood-stained mattress, according to prosecutors.When mother Munson got home from work the morning of Nov. 3, she was told by Spears Rowan was at a pal’s home. When she never came home, police launched a massive search for her.
Spears also implicated himself in the crime, claiming Collings gave him a cord and that he killed Rowan, according to court docs cited in a clemency petition for Collings.Spears ended up pleading to lesser charges and served more than seven years in prison.Last-ditch appeals on behalf of Collings to Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and the US Supreme Court failed.
“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,” Parson said in a statement.
Rowan was remembered as a happy student who loved Barbie and painted her room pink, according to teachers who testified at her trial.
“I am so proud of the girl that she was turning out to be,” her older sister, Ariane Macks, told USA Today.
“A part of me died when my sister died. I did lose my ray of sunshine … She was very shy but when she opened up, it’s like the whole room lit up. Rowan, she was something very special.”
