Missouri death row inmate’s final words as he is executed for raping and killing nine-year-old girl found dumped in sinkhole

A Missouri death row inmate who was executed for raping and killing a nine-year-old girl made one last apology before he died.

Christopher Collings, 49, shared the final message before being put to death by lethal injection on Tuesday evening. He was pronounced dead at 6:10pm.

‘Right or wrong I accept this situation for what it is,’ Collings said. ‘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.’

His final meal was a bacon cheeseburger, breaded mushrooms, tater tots and a salad.

The last person that visited Collings was spiritual advisor Rev. Kristen Leslie. 

Collings’ attorney, Jeremy Weis, said in a statement: ‘We 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.

‘What occurred today, though, was an act of vengeance, but it will not define Chris, nor will it be how we remember him.’ 

Collings raped and murdered Rowan Ford, 9, on November 3 in 2007 after spending several months living with the little girl’s family in Stella. Missouri.

She knew him as ‘Uncle Chris.’ 

Collings, who has two daughters of his own, admitted to heavily drinking and smoking marijuana before picking Rowan up while she was sleeping and taking her to a camper where he assaulted her.

He told police he had planned on taking her home afterwards, but she saw his face and he killed her in a panic, claiming he ‘freaked out’. 

Collings said he spotted 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 he attacked Rowan. 

After murdering the child, he confessed he put 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 atrocious crimes, Rowan’s mother Colleen Munson came home from her overnight shift and asked where her daughter went. 

Spears said she was at a friend’s house. But Munson called the police in the afternoon when her daughter failed to return. 

Collings, Spears and a third man were at the center of the investigation because they were the last people who saw the young girl. 

Court documents and the clemency petition said that Spears told police he actually killed Rowan after Collings handed him a cord. 

‘I choke her with it. I realize she´s gone. She’s… she’s really gone,’ Spears said in transcripts.

Court documents said it was Spears who directed police to the sinkhole where Rowan was found. 

But Collings denied that Spears was involved, according to court filings.  

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 claimed he suffered emotional and sexual abuse, leaving him with ‘severe disorganized dissociative attachment.’

The filing reads: ‘The jury found Rowan’s murder involved torture, and, as a result thereof, the murder was outrageously and wantonly vile, horrible, and inhuman, and Rowan was killed as a result of her status as a potential witness.’

Rowan was described by teachers as a hardworking and loving child during the trial.

Ariane Macks, Rowan’s sister, told USA Today earlier this week: ‘A part of me died when my sister died. I did lose my ray of sunshine…Rowan, she was something very special.’  

On Monday, the Supreme Court and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson denied Collings clemency.

‘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 after the clemency denial. 

‘The State of Missouri will carry out Mr. Collings’ sentence according to the Court’s order and deliver 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.

‘I wanted him dead, I still do,’ Macks told USA Today before the execution. ‘But they could have done something better than lethal injection because he’s going out easy.’ 

He was the fourth person in Missouri and 23rd in the US to be executed this year.