Justin Rey, 35, was discovered inside a Kansas City storage unit alongside his two young daughters and the dismembered remains of his wife, Jessica Monteiro, 32, just hours after she died giving birth to their baby girl. Rey admitted to 'skinning' Jessica 'like a fish' following her death.
Discovery and Initial Claims
Jessica's body parts were found scattered across several containers. Rey initially claimed she had taken her own life, before later stating she had died during childbirth. A post-mortem examination was unable to establish a conclusive cause of death.
After Jessica died following childbirth in a Kansas City motel, Rey failed to contact the emergency services, instead choosing to dismember her body in the bathtub. He tried to justify this act by claiming he feared their two daughters would be placed into care.
Court Proceedings and Testimony
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 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 the elder child "almost looked like she had cancer". Rey subsequently told officers he was travelling to Arizona to perform a proper ceremony for his wife. He was arrested and his children were placed into protective care.
Evidence and Sentencing
Lenexa police detective Shannon Murphy provided evidence that Rey had forced his children to be photographed beside their mother's body, with Rey confirming 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 it was impossible to determine whether these had been inflicted before or after her death.
During his testimony, Rey insisted 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 alongside his wife's body with his newborn and two-year-old child present, before dismembering her remains two days later in a hotel bathtub and transferring them into a large cooler. CCTV footage captured him wheeling a red cooler with a black bag placed on top through the hotel corridor, while navigating a pram with a toddler walking by his side.
When pressed 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 restricted his cross-examination exclusively to images retrieved from his mobile phone, which prevented prosecutors from questioning him about the children and the fate of his wife. Despite this, throughout a series of telephone interviews, Rey insisted he had not contacted the police as he did not want them to "steal more children". He maintained 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 support his case at trial. Rey was compelled to watch the hearing via video link from a separate room following his persistent disruptions, which 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.
