Court records: Missouri pair admitted to second slaying

~ Documents also reveal injuries to girl found with fugitives.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A suburban Kansas City couple accused of the videotaped sex killing of an Independence woman have admitted that they videotaped and killed a second woman, court documents released Thursday show.

Investigators say Richard D. Davis, 41, and Dena D. Riley, 39, admitted their involvement in the deaths of 41-year-old Marsha Spicer and Michelle Huff, also known as Michelle Ricci.

Sherry Ballew has told Kanas City media outlets that she thought a body discovered this weekend in Clay County and linked to the Spicer investigation was that of her 36-year-old daughter, Ricci.

At a news conference Thursday evening, Jackson County Prosecutor Mike Sanders said the body had not been officially identified as Ricci, but added that "all our information indicates that is the case."

The documents also say the 5-year-old girl traveling with Davis and Riley when they were arrested in Southwest Missouri last week had suffered injuries consistent with sexual abuse.

Sanders said Davis and Riley told authorities after they were arrested that the woman was assaulted in Independence, driven to Clay County, strangled, burned and buried. He said Davis took them to the area near Liberty where the body was found.

Davis and Riley face charges of first-degree murder, first-degree assault, kidnapping, forcible rape and forcible sodomy in Spicer's death. They have not been charged with Ricci's death.

Search warrants filed with the Jackson County court in recent days also said the couple told investigators they had made "other videotapes" similar to the one in which police have said Spicer is seen being beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled. Davis said the tapes police had already found represented just "bits and pieces" of what they had made.

Sanders said no information has surfaced to indicate there are other victims, but he said investigators continue to receive numerous tips in the case. He also said evidence indicates that neither woman was a willing participant in the videotaped sex acts, and that Ricci was killed before Spicer.

An evidence log filed with the documents said investigators found a plastic bag with videotapes in a storage room at Davis' workplace.

Spicer's naked body was found May 15 in a shallow grave in Bates City, east of Kansas City.

After spending eight days on the run, Davis and Riley were captured by police when the couple's vehicle was in an accident in southwest Missouri. A 5-year-old girl was with the couple.

According to search warrants filed with the Jackson County court, a doctor at Barton County Memorial Hospital who examined the girl told investigators the child, who is identified as being Davis' niece, suffered serious injuries "believed to be from a sexual assault."

The court documents said the girl's mother alerted Pittsburg, Kan., police the afternoon on May 25, 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 day, the documents say, Barton County authorities received a call from Davis and Riley saying "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 was eventually arrested on a dirt road after their truck got into a wreck.

Federal officials would make any decisions on charges in the case involving the girl.

In the court documents, 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 videotapes showing women being tortured and raped, but they don't yet 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 bloodstain 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.