Ex-Barry County sheriff says death penalty justified for Rowan Ford’s killer

BARRY COUNTY, Mo. – Throughout his law enforcement career, former Barry County Sheriff Mick Epperly says there’s only one case that stands apart from the others.

The 2007 kidnapping and murder of 9-year-old Rowan Ford.

The state announced that Rowan’s killer, Christopher Collings, will face the death penalty on December 3, 2024.

“It’s one of those cases that you never forget,” Epperly said.

In November 2007, Rowan went missing from her home in the middle of the night in Newton County.

She was raped and strangled, then her body was left in a cave in McDonald County. She was found nearly a week after she was killed.

“It was terrible,” Epperly said. “And for someone to take a life and throw them down into a cave, like a piece of dirt, it’s terrible.”

Collings admitted to local police he was drinking heavily the night he went into Rowan’s room and took her back to his trailer.

Court documents show in his confession, he said he raped her and was going to take her home, when she saw his face. That’s when he decided to use a rope and strangle her.

Epperly tells OzarksFirst he feels justice has been served.

In 2012, the case went to trial, where the jury found Collings guilty of first-degree murder.

“Nothing is going to bring that little sweet little girl back,” Epperly said. “And she didn’t deserve any of this.”

Rowan would be 26 years old if she were alive today.

“It’ll give some satisfaction to that family that maybe he got what he deserved,” Epperly said.

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