Nearly 17 years after the tragic murder of nine-year-old Rowan Ford, an execution date has been scheduled for one of the men responsible for her death.
The Supreme Court of Missouri issued an execution warrant for Christopher Collings on Tuesday. His execution is set for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 3. This follows a request made in April by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who sought an execution date for Collings, convicted of the 2007 murder of young Ford.
Rowan Ford, a fourth-grader at Stella Elementary School, was last seen on Nov. 2, 2007, at her home in Stella, where she lived with her mother, Colleen Spears, and stepfather, David Spears. After a weeklong search that involved around 40 FBI agents, her body was discovered in a hillside cave in McDonald County, about 10 miles from her home.
The day after her body was found, David Spears, then 25, and Collings, then 32, were arrested and charged with first-degree murder, forcible rape, and statutory rape, according to previous News-Leader reports.
Collings, now 49, was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for first-degree murder. David Spears received a total of 11 years in prison for first-degree endangering the welfare of a child and hindering the prosecution of a felony. As of Tuesday, Spears was no longer in the custody of the Missouri Department of Corrections.
What happened to Rowan Ford?
Collings wasted no time in admitting his crimes to the authorities, just a few days after his arrest alongside Spears.
According to previous News-Leader coverage, authorities had initially grown suspicious of Spears due to his lack of cooperation in explaining the reason behind his “lengthy absence” from the family’s home on the night of Ford’s disappearance.
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Spears and Collings initially entered pleas of not guilty to the charges, but they later changed their pleas to guilty after hiring lawyers. The possibility of imposing the death penalty on Collings was already being discussed as early as May 2008.
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