Eerie final words of Missouri inmate executed over the vile murder of 9-year-old girl

An inmate who was executed for the rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl shared a chilling message before his death.

Christopher Collings, 49, from Missouri was sentenced to death for the 2007 rape and murder of nine-year-old Rowan Ford, who knew him as "Uncle Chris".

The father of two had been found guilty of sexually assaulting, strangling, and dumping Ford's body in a sinkhole in a small town in Missouri in 2007.

Collings had been friends with Ford's stepfather, David Spears, and was living in the home with them and Ford's mother, Colleen Munson, for several months before the abhorrent crime.

After drinking heavily and smoking marijuana with Spears and another male friend, Collings had scooped the sleeping child up from her bed and took her to his camper, according to court records cited by the New York Post.

He then raped her, but admitted he "freaked out" when she saw his face as he carried her back home, and ended up strangling the child with a wire.

In an attempt to cover up the horrifying crime, Collings threw her body into a sinkhole, before burning the wire he'd used to kill her, as well as the clothes he'd been wearing and a blood-stained mattress, prosecutors said.

When the child's mother returned home from work on the morning of November 3, 2007, Spears told her that her daughter was at a friends home, and a massive search was launched by police after she failed to return home.

Spears was also arrested after implicating himself in the crime, claiming Collings had given him a cord and that he killed Ford, according to court docs cited in a clemency petition for Collings, and ended up serving more than seven years in prison.

Collings was executed by lethal injection on December 3, 2024. Credit: Joe Raedle/Newsmakers/Getty Images

Collings had been sentenced to death, but had launched unsuccessful appeals to Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and the US Supreme Court to lessen his sentence.

Parson said in a statement: "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."

Collings was finally executed on Tuesday, December 3, 2024, being declared dead nine minutes after being injected with a single dose of pentobarbital inside a state prison in Bonne Terre, the 23rd execution in the US this year.

The Kansas City Star reported that his last meal was a bacon cheeseburger, breaded mushrooms, tater tots, and a chef salad.

His final words in a written statement were: "Right or wrong I accept this situation for what it is."

He added: "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."

Ford's teachers who'd testified at the trial had remembered her as a happy student who had a love for Barbie and had painted her room pink.

Her older sister, Ariane Macks, told USA Today: "I am so proud of the girl that she was turning out to be.

"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."

Featured image credit: Joe Raedle/Newsmakers/getty Images