Inset: Nicholas Ayres (Boone County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The Columbia, Missouri, motel where Ayres allegedly killed Destiny Dunn (Google Maps).
A Missouri man has been arrested after investigators say evidence found on his own cellphone showed him abusing a woman who was later found dead in a Columbia motel room.
Nicholas Anthony Ayres, 35, is charged with one count of second-degree felony murder and one count of first-degree domestic assault in the death of 37-year-old Destiny Dunn, the Columbia Police Department said in a press release.
The case began on Wednesday, Aug. 12, when officers were sent to a reported cardiac arrest at a residence on Range Line Street in Columbia, a central Missouri city about 125 miles west of St. Louis.
When police arrived at the By The Way Motel, they discovered Dunn dead inside.
“Upon arrival, officers believed the death to be suspicious,” police said. “The investigation later revealed the death was a homicide.”
According to a probable cause statement obtained by Columbia-based NBC and The CW affiliate KOMU, Ayres was the person who called 911 that day.
Ayres allegedly told dispatchers that he and Dunn had been involved in an altercation while they were in the shower, the charging document says. He claimed Dunn became upset after he told her he planned to leave her, and that she then fell in the shower, according to police.
During the emergency call, Ayres allegedly said the woman looked like she had been beaten up, but the defendant told the dispatcher he did no such thing, according to the probable cause statement.
Inside the motel, officers noted that Dunn had bruises all over her body, police said. The defendant was taken into custody at the scene.
Police spoke with neighboring guests in an adjacent room at the motel who said they heard what sounded like physical violence some four hours prior, according to the charging document.
During a custodial interview, Ayres allegedly admitted to physical altercations with Dunn but insisted they were accidental, police said.
After obtaining a search warrant for the motel room, police recovered the defendant’s cellphone. On the device, investigators found a recording dated two days before the slaying in which Ayres attacks Dunn repeatedly, according to the probable cause statement.
Other telltale evidence turned up on the phone, police said.
Investigators allegedly found a photograph of Dunn lying in the bathtub at the motel. There is also an accompanying video of sorts in which Dunn is still in the bathtub – barely moving. The photo and video were timestamped roughly three hours before police arrived at the motel, according to the charging document.
Then, in yet another video, Ayres paces the motel room as Dunn groans in the background, police said. At one point in the final video, the defendant announces that he is calling 911.
“Hey honey, I’m really calling 911. I have to because I’m not going down for manslaughter,” Ayres allegedly tells the dying woman, according to the probable cause statement.
The defendant is being detained in the Boone County Jail without bond.
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