Videotaped Murder Suspects Nabbed
A couple accused of luring a woman to their home, videotaping her rape and choking and leaving her naked body in a shallow grave was captured after more than a week on the run.
Richard Davis and Dena Riley, who lived together in Independence, Mo., were arrested Thursday evening after having dinner with Davis' 5-year-old niece in Pittsburg, Kan., less than 20 miles from Lamar, Mo., where Davis and Riley turned themselves in.
Police there said Friday that the girl's parents reported her missing when she was not returned home several hours after leaving.
Pittsburg police said Davis and Riley were identified as fugitives when authorities in neighboring Barton County, Mo., responded to an emergency phone call involving a crash of the red truck they were driving. Both suspects were transported to hospitals, authorities said, but the extent of their injuries was unclear.
Police have not said if the girl was hurt or sexually abused. FBI spokesman Michael Pettry said Friday that authorities were continuing their investigation and looking into possible federal kidnapping charges.
CBS News affiliate KCTV in Kansas City reports that investigators from Independence were questioning the pair and were set to bring them back to Independence.
Jeff Lanza, an FBI spokesman in Kansas City, Mo., says investigators "believe this girl was taken from her home in Pittsburg, Kan., and the FBI is investigating this as a kidnapping case."
Mike Sanders, the Jackson County prosecutor, said his office would also review the case to determine whether to pursue the death penalty. He said more charges are "very likely in the near future."
Davis and Riley are already charged with first-degree murder, first-degree assault, kidnapping, forcible rape and two counts of forcible sodomy in the death of 41-year-old Marsha Spicer, who was found May 15, a day after she was believed to have been killed.
The victim's sister, Jackie Schumacher, called Davis and Riley "demented perverts that shouldn't live."
Read the sheriff's release on the pair's arrest.
Check out court documents and charges in the death of Marsha Spicer.
"Nobody should do what they did to Marsha or anybody else," the Blue Springs, Mo., woman said. "People don't deserve to be treated the way that she was treated. I haven't seen the tape. I don't want to see the tape, but I've heard — and nobody, nobody should be treated the way she was treated."
Authorities said the couple lured Spicer to their home for sex, but ultimately videotaped her torture.
A tape found on a TV stand in their apartment shows Spicer with duct tape over her eyes and her hands secured behind her back. She is beaten, raped and sodomized as she pleads for the attack to stop.
That tape was discovered by police after they had interviewed the couple, and after the couple had already fled.
Sanders said the tape was so disturbing that there was talk of offering counseling to those involved in investigating the case.
"This is probably one of the most difficult things I have had to go through," he said.
The room portrayed on tape matches the bedroom at the home of Davis and Riley, police said, and detectives noted that the couple had a camcorder aimed at their bed when officers interviewed them. Officers also say a notebook at the home made references to "sexual desires," "choking," "chasing" and "victims."
Several family members and friends of the suspects have told detectives the couple had hopes of carrying out similar acts on others, but police say they're unsure how valid those claims are.
Davis is on parole after spending nearly 18 years in prison for a 1987 rape and sodomy conviction. Riley has previously been charged with misdemeanors, but no felonies.