Accused Palm Springs killer admits to dismembering his wife
A man charged after investigators found him and two young children in a Kansas storage shed with bags of his wife’s remains says he cut up her body to protect his family.
During a preliminary hearing Tuesday, 36-year-old Justin Rey testified that dismembered his wife’s body at a Kansas City, Missouri, hotel in October 2017. Investigators later found him and two small children with the remains at a Lenexa, Kansas, storage unit. He said he was taking the remains back to Arizona for burial.
Rey has said his wife died in childbirth but also told investigators she committed suicide.
The Kansas City Star reports a not guilty plea was entered for Rey.
Rey is charged in Kansas and Missouri with child endangerment. He’s charged with abandonment of corpse in Missouri. He isn’t charged in his wife’s killing.
Rey is also charged with the murder of Sean Ty Ferel of Palm Springs. Ferel went missing following a vacation with Rey in May 2016.
It is alleged that Rey assumed Ferel’s identity and stole his car, credit cards, and other property after his disappearance.
After his disappearance, Ferel’s loved ones reported still receiving text messages from his old phone number, but there was “a marked change in the way Ferel would respond,” according to Palm Springs Sgt. William Hutchinson. They began to suspect that Ferel himself was not sending the messages after this change.
Police recovered Ferel’s car in August of 2016. Inside of it, Ferel’s driver’s license, credit cards , and phone were also recovered.
Ferel’s body has not been recovered, but his blood was found in his truck when it was recovered by police.
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