Husband allegedly cut up wife's body after taking pictures of the corpse with his children
Justin Rey is charged with abandonment of a corpse and endangering the welfare of a child.
A 35-year-old man has been charged with abandonment of a corpse and endangering the welfare of a child over allegations he dismembered his wife and kept her remains in a cooler.
Jackson County Prosecutor's Office said on Wednesday (15 November) that Justin Rey faced the charges after allegedly telling authorities that he had cut up his wife in front of his two children in a Kansas City hotel.
According to a probable cause statement submitted to court, Rey told detectives at the Lexana Police Department that his wife, Jessica Rey, died after giving birth in a hotel bathtub.
When first confronted, he allegedly said that she had committed suicide after giving birth.
The documents said that Rey had told authorities he had moved her body to the bed where he took pictures of the corpse with his two-year-old toddler and newborn baby.
In a second interview, the document describes Rey saying he had spent the Friday and Saturday with the body before dismembering it in the bathtub.
Rey then allegedly boiled parts of the body that he could not fit in a cooler. The statement said Rey had also told of flushing other parts of the corpse down the toilet. Authorities were alerted to the suspect when a U-haul storage facility contacted them about "a suspicious person who stated his wife died while giving childbirth to their newborn".
Police said that Rey "spontaneously" told them that his wife was inside the cooler at the storage facility. Authorities said that the investigation had found that Jessica Rey was last seen on 20 October - hotel management told police that Rey checked out of the room three days later by calling the front desk and disguising his voice as female. Surveillance footage showed Rey pulling a cooler and an unknown black bag as him and his two children left the hotel.
The Jackson County Prosecutor's Office said they were requesting a bond of $100,000 (£76,000) cash and that Rey is in custody in Johnson County as investigations continue.
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