CASSVILLE, MO. — The stepfather of a 9-year-old girl found dead in a hillside cave and his friend were each charged Saturday with murder and rape.
Rowan Ford vanished while in her stepfather’s care last weekend, and authorities early on had said he would not explain a lengthy absence that night from the family’s house.
The girl’s body was found Friday in a cave in a remote part of McDonald County, about 10 miles south of Stella, where she lived with her mother, Colleen Spears, 44, and her stepfather, David Spears, 25.
Barry County Sheriff Mick Epperly said the stepfather’s friend, Chris Collings, 32, confessed about the slaying.
An affidavit alleges the men took Rowan to a camping trailer where Collings lived in Barry County and each raped the girl. One strangled her with a cord, though it wasn’t clear which man, Epperly said.
Oil spill blamed on human error
OAKLAND, CALIF. — A preliminary investigation found human error caused a cargo ship to crash into the Bay Bridge, leading to San Francisco Bay’s worst oil spill in nearly two decades, the U.S. Coast Guard said Saturday as rescue teams raced to save hundreds of seabirds.
Coast Guard officials declined to lay blame on any specific individual or provide further detail on the mistakes that were made during the midweek crash.
Investigators were focusing on issues surrounding the ship’s official protocol for safely navigating out of the bay, including possible communication problems between the ship’s crew, the pilot guiding the vessel and the Coast Guard station that monitors the bay’s shipping traffic.
Navy cruiser blast injures 6
SAN DIEGO — An explosion in the hull of a Navy cruiser during routine maintenance injured six workers Saturday, two critically, authorities said.
Subcontractors from the National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. were working in the fuel tank of the USS Lake Champlain as it sat in dry dock when the explosion occurred, said Fire Department spokesman Maurice Luque. “Apparently it was caused by flammable gas that ignited,” he said. “We don’t know how or why.”
