SELIGMAN, Mo. (KMOX) - Two men face charges of capital murder and kidnapping after they allegedly beat, shot and mutilated a man, and left his body in the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri. Authorities say the men believed the victim had raped a girl when she was a child.
According to the Washington County, Arkansas Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Daniel Blanks, 43, of Fort Smith, Arkansas and Reginald Baker, 40, of Seligman, Missouri burst into the apartment of Richard Phillips on Nov. 23 accusing him of raping a young girl, according to Fox 2. Phillips' friend who was inside the apartment in Springdale, Arkansas told police the two men beat Phillips unconscious and dragged him out of his home.
The friend called police and security footage showed the men dumping Phillips' body into the back of a pickup truck and driving off. Police found a trail of blood from the third-floor apartment down to the parking lot.
Four days later, a group of hunters found Phillips' body in wooded area north of Seligman, Missouri. Police say he had been shot, beaten and mutilated. Police announced a search for Phillips after he was reported missing:
Authorities believe the reason for the attack was because a girl told Baker and Blanks that Phillips had raped her when she was 6-years-old and she was still distraught over it. The girl told police she told the men about it while at a birthday party that Phillips was also at a month before the attack.
Baker grabbed a knife and wanted to kill Phillips that day, police say, but the girl was able to talk him out of it.
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Police obtained the juvenile's phone and found messages between her and Baker about Phillips' disappearance, but he denied it. In a search of Baker's messages, police say he texted another person to meet him at an address in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Baker was arrested at that address on Nov. 26, a day before Phillips' body was found. Trucks registered to both Baker and Blanks were at the location and both men were arrested there without incident.
Blood and a shotgun was found in their vehicles.
The men have been charged with capital murder, kidnapping, and residential burglary. They are being tried in Arkansas because detectives believe that's where the murder happened.
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