Father jailed after wife’s dismembered body found in storage unit with children
In a deeply disturbing case, a father of two was found in a storage unit with his daughters and the skinned and dismembered remains of his wife, just hours after she had delivered their baby girl.
Justin Rey, 35, horrifically "skinned" Jessica Monteiro "like a fish" following her death at just 32 in a motel, before taking a chilling photograph with her body and their two children.
Jessica’s body parts were discovered scattered across multiple containers. Rey initially claimed she had taken her own life, but subsequently stated she died during childbirth.
The post-mortem examiner was unable to establish a definitive cause of death.
After Jessica died following childbirth in a Kansas City motel, Rey failed to contact emergency services, instead opting to dismember her body in the bathtub.
He justified this horrific act by claiming he feared their two daughters would be removed from his care.
Rey spent eight harrowing hours dissecting his partner’s body before placing it in a cooler, according to Jessica’s sister.
During his preliminary hearing, Rey testified: "It’s something I had to do. My family is very dear to me. It’s something I had to do to protect my family."
Following his arrest in October 2017, Rey admitted to his crimes at Johnson County District Court, expressing his desire to keep his family together.
After reports emerged of someone residing in a storage unit with two children, police discovered Rey alongside his newborn baby girl and his two-year-old daughter. A police officer testified that the elder child "almost looked like she had cancer".
Rey subsequently told officers he was traveling to Arizona to hold a proper ceremony for his wife. He was arrested and his children were placed into protective custody.
Lenexa police detective Shannon Murphy presented evidence that Rey had forced his children to pose for photographs alongside their mother’s corpse, with Rey admitting he had "skinned her like a fish".
Murphy presented evidence Rey confessed to placing the body parts that wouldn’t flush down the toilet into containers.
Deputy Johnson County Coroner Charles Glenn told the court there were a "number" of stab wounds on the recovered body parts, though stated it was impossible to determine whether these had occurred before or after her death.
During his harrowing testimony, Rey claimed they had only been at the storage facility for 11 hours before they were discovered. He also told the court he only flushed the placenta down the toilet and not any other body parts.
"It was not fun for me," he said.
Investigators alleged that Rey photographed himself with his wife’s body alongside his newborn and two-year-old child, before dismembering her remains two days later in a hotel bathtub and placing them into a large cooler.
CCTV footage captured him wheeling a red cooler with a black bag on top through the hotel corridor, while pushing a pram with a toddler walking by his side.
When asked about the dismemberment, Rey told The Associated Press, "What was I supposed to do? I wasn’t going to leave mama behind."
Rey’s solicitor only cross-examined him about the images discovered on his mobile phone, which prevented prosecutors from questioning him about the children and the fate of his wife.
However, during a series of telephone interviews, Rey claimed he had not alerted the police because he did not want them to "steal more children."
He alleged that he and his wife had six children together and that officers had previously "stolen our children before."
In a letter addressed to AP dated 23 June, Rey wrote, "My children had not been in any danger, I’m not a murderer, I never abandoned a corpse, never lived in a storage unit/facility, never looked up/screenshot child porn."
Yet he conceded: "I did dismember a dead corpse under religious views."
Rey faced charges including two counts of aggravated child endangerment and two counts of contributing to a child’s misconduct — unrelated to his own children, but stemming from photographs of teenagers discovered on Rey’s phone after he requested that law enforcement examine it for evidence he believed would assist him at trial.
Rey was compelled to follow the hearing via video link from a separate room after his repeated interruptions led a judge to order his removal from the courtroom. As part of his nine-year prison sentence, Rey will be placed on the sex offenders’ register.
Head of Investigations
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