Doctor says child suffered sex abuse

Published Friday, June 2, 2006

KANSAS CITY (AP) - Court documents released yesterday disclosed that the 5-year-old girl found last week traveling with a suburban Kansas City couple accused of murder and sexual assault had suffered injuries consistent with sexual abuse.

Search warrants filed with the Jackson County court in recent days also indicated authorities believe the Independence couple, Richard Davis, 41, and Dena Riley, 39, made videotapes of other women being tortured and raped. Authorities are now trying to find those tapes.

A doctor at Baritone County Memorial Hospital who examined the girl after the couple was arrested in southwest Missouri told investigators the child, who is identified as being Davis’ niece, suffered serious injuries "believed to be from a sexual assault."

Davis and Riley face charges of first-degree murder, first-degree assault, kidnapping, forcible rape and forcible sodomy in the death of 41-year-old Marsha Spicer. Spicer’s naked body was found in a shallow grave on May 15 in Bates City, east of Kansas City.

Prosecutors have said that during a search of the couple’s Independence home police found a videotape of the pair beating, raping and choking Spicer.

The latest court documents said the girl’s mother alerted Pittsburg, Kan., police, saying Davis, her half-brother and a woman later identified as Riley had taken her daughter and disappeared on the way to lunch.

The mother said Davis said he wanted to reconnect with the family after spending 21 years in prison. Davis actually spent 18 years in prison for rape and sodomy.

Around 5 p.m. that afternoon, the documents say, Barton County authorities received a call from Davis and Riley saying "that they were tired of hurting people" and planned to overdose on drugs as soon as they found a place to drop off the girl.

The couple eventually was arrested on a dirt road after their truck got into a wreck. Federal officials are investigating possible kidnapping charges.

Police said an audio recording found in the vehicle Davis and Riley were captured in had Davis talking about other tapes that had been made. Investigators said they think that means there are other videotaped showing women being tortured and raped, but they currently don’t know where those tapes might be.

Earlier search warrants said investigators, looking in the couple’s Independence apartment garage, found a possibly bloodstained blanket in a Chevrolet S-10 pickup and what looked like a blood stain in the upholstery of a 1993 Toyota Corolla.

A pitchfork was found in the Corolla’s trunk.

In the apartment itself, the documents say, investigators found a marijuana cigarette, a bag of a leafy substance, a laptop computer, videotapes, a roll of duct tape and pieces of duct tape with hair stuck to it. In the video, officials said, Spicer has duct tape around her wrists and over her eyes.

Investigators also tested the inside of a bathtub and took a bathroom sink’s drain and filter.

Investigators also are trying to determine if Davis and Riley are linked to a badly burned body found during the weekend east of the Kansas City suburb of Liberty. Jackson County Prosecutor Mike Sanders has said additional charges against the couple are likely and could include charges related to other slayings.

The Jackson County Coroner is examining the body, which officials said is so badly decomposed they couldn’t determine gender.

Sherry Ballew has told Kansas City media outlets that she thinks the body belongs to her daughter, 36-year-old Michelle Ricci, who hasn’t been seen since April 2 and was a friend of Spicer. A family member said police had asked both Ballew and a granddaughter to provide DNA samples.