A Missouri death row inmate executed for raping and murdering a nine-year-old girl apologized one last time before dying.
Christopher Collings, 49, shared the final message before he was put to death by lethal injection Tuesday evening. He was pronounced dead at 6:10 p.m.
“Right or wrong, I accept this situation for what it is,” Collings said. ‘I’m sorry to everyone I’ve hurt in this life. I hope you can wrap it up and move on.
“I hope to see you in heaven someday.”
His last meal was a bacon cheeseburger, breaded mushrooms, tater tots and a salad.
The last person to visit Collings was spiritual advisor Rev. Kristen Leslie.
Collings’ attorney, Jeremy Weis, said in a statement: “We share Chris’s wishes that his death will provide some closure for the victim’s family and that those injured by him will be able to to continue.
“However, what happened today was an act of revenge, but it will not define Chris nor will it be the way we remember him.”
Christopher Collings was executed Tuesday night after raping and murdering nine-year-old Rowan Ford in 2007.
Collings raped and murdered 9-year-old Rowan Ford on November 3, 2007 after living with the little girl’s family in Stella for several months. Missouri.
She knew him as ‘Uncle Chris.’
Collings, who has two daughters of his own, admitted to drinking and smoking marijuana heavily before picking Rowan up while she was sleeping and taking her to a camper where he attacked her.
He told police he planned to take her home afterwards, but she saw his face and he killed her in a panic, claiming he “freaked out.”
Collings said he saw a rope in his truck and used it to strangle her to death. He admitted to police that he burned the rope, the clothes he was wearing and the bloody mattress after attacking Rowan.
After killing the child, he confessed to putting her in a sinkhole.
Her body was found a few days later, on November 9.
Rowan’s stepfather, David Spears, was friends with Collings. They were smoking and drinking together the night Collings killed Rowan.
The morning after Collings committed the heinous crimes, Rowan’s mother Colleen Munson came home from her night shift and asked where her daughter was going.
Rowan Ford, 9, was raped and murdered by Collings, whom she knew as ‘Uncle Chris’
Spears said she was with a friend. But Munson called police in the afternoon when her daughter did not return.
Collings, Spears and a third man were at the center of the investigation because they were the last people to see the young girl.
Court documents and the pardon petition stated that Spears told police he actually killed Rowan after Collings handed him a cord.
‘I’ll strangle her with it. I realize she’s gone. She’s… she’s really gone,” Spears said in transcripts.
According to court documents, it was Spears who sent police to the sinkhole where Rowan was found.
But Collings denied Spears was involved, court documents show.
Spears was able to plead to lesser charges and it is unclear why, the Associated Press reported. He served seven years in prison and was released in 2015.
According to court documents from Collings’ trial, his defense team discussed Collings’ childhood and alleged that he suffered from emotional and sexual abuse, which left him with “severe disorganized dissociative attachment.”
The filing reads: “The jury found that Rowan’s murder involved torture, and as a result, the murder was outrageous and deliberately despicable, heinous and inhuman, and Rowan was murdered as a result of her status as a potential witness.”
Rowan was described by teachers at the trial as a hardworking and loving child.
Rowan’s casket during her funeral in 2007 (photo). Rowan was described as a loving child
On Monday, the Supreme Court and Missouri Governor Mike Parson denied him clemency.
‘Sir. Collings has been afforded every protection afforded by the Constitutions of Missouri and the United States, and Mr. Collings’ conviction and sentence will stand for his heinous and callous crime, Parson said in a statement following the denial of clemency.
“The State of Missouri will carry out Mr. Collings’ sentence according to the Court’s order and provide justice.”
Parson wrote that he hopes “all those who knew and loved Rowan may find peace in knowing that justice has been done.”
Collings was executed at the state’s Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Bonne Terre.
He was the fourth person in Missouri and the 23rd in the U.S. to be executed this year.