KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Police found a woman’s dismembered body in a cooler at a Lenexa storage unit, and her husband admitted he’s the one responsible.
But the story behind the alleged crime is just as incredible as what investigators found inside that plastic tub.
FOX4 Crime Files have new details in the case, and it all started with a letter from Justin Rey to FOX4’s Kathy Quinn.
Rey wrote these letters from inside his cell at the New Century Detention Center in Johnson County. Rey urged Quinn to visit him, saying the visit would be worth the time because he wanted to reveal what he calls “the truth.”
The letters came months before his trial started. Rey is charged with crimes in Kansas, Missouri and California. In all, Rey faced seven counts in Kansas and Missouri — including child endangerment and abandonment of a corpse.
But on the day Quinn sat down across the glass from him in jail, his legal issues got worse.
While speaking to Rey, separated by glass, prosecutors also charged him with possession of child porn, saying they found it on his cell phone.
Rey actually brought up the topic of the new child porn charges. He brought up a lot of things during an hour-long, face-to-face conversation.
They’re the same claims he made when he testified at his first trial in January. Rey denies all of the charges against him, including the child pornography. He said he’s not a pedophile, not a murderer and he’s competent.
The issue of competency is one Rey and prosecutors agree upon.
When FOX4 visited him before trial, Rey seemed very, very anxious. He started talking as soon as Quinn sat down and picked up the phone, rarely stopping.
Recording isn’t allowed inside the jail, so Quinn scribbled frantic notes as Rey explained what he called “the truth.”
His strange explanation is a twisted tale of cross-dressing, accusations of murder, an alleged crime spree across several states, and his deep belief that it’s all part of God’s plan.
A Johnson County jury found Rey guilty of child endangerment and possession of child pornography at trial, but that’s only the first of three possible trials and a fight for answers that could drag on for years.
FOX4 will continue to follow this story as Rey pleads his case, but you can listen to what he has to say in his own words in a new FOX4 Crime Files podcast: The Justin Rey Letters.
In these episodes, you’ll hear Rey lay out his arguments and explain what he says happened from a series of letters he wrote and sent personally to Quinn.
FOX4 dives deeper into the tangled mystery and the extended jailhouse interview.
Read his series of letters below:
