The state Supreme Court has set an execution date for a man who kidnapped, raped, and murdered a 19-year-old Strafford woman in 2001.
David Zink is scheduled to die by lethal injection between 6 p.m. July 14 and 5:59 p.m. July 15 at the state prison in Bonne Terre. If that date holds, his death would come 14 years and two days after he killed Amanda Morton.
Zink rear-ended Morton’s vehicle at an exit ramp on Highway 44 while she was driving home. She called authorities, who found her car with its engine running and her personal belongings still inside.
A hotel manager later recognized Morton’s photo on a television broadcast and called police. That eventually led them to Zink, who had signed the hotel register when he took her there. He admitted to killing Morton and burying her in a church cemetery near Osceola. DNA from her body, hair samples found in Zink’s truck, and paint from her car on his truck, also connected him to the crime.
The murder happened five months after Zink was released from a Texas prison where he had served 20 years for abduction and rape.
Missouri is next scheduled to carry out the execution of Richard Strong for the murder of his girlfriend and her 2-year-old child in 2000. His execution is scheduled for June 9.
