One Fugitive Behind Bars

A 41-year-old Independence man, wanted in the brutal rape and murder of a Blue Springs woman, has been captured and now is in a Jackson County jail cell, awaiting arraignment. Richard Davis has been on the run with Dena Riley as law enforcement sought them in the death of Marsha Spicer May 15th. Authorities say Riley called the Barton County Sheriff’s Department to report the couple planned to commit suicide and wanted the department to pick up the 5-year-old girl who was with them. Authorities, who had been searching for the couple for eight days, didn’t know they had a child with them.Independence police officer Tom Gentry says Davis is back home, behind bars. Gentry says Riley remains hospitalized. Little is known about the status of the girl, other than she also has been hospitalized. Police say the girl is Davis’ niece. Police say the couple left behind a video tape of the beating and sexual assault of Spicer, whose body was found in a shallow grave in Lafayette County. The girl was taken from Pittsburg, Kansas. The couple was captured near Lamar, in southwest Missouri, after Barton County Sheriff’s Deputies found the couple’s wrecked pick-up.