A Missouri man is behind bars after police say they discovered disturbing videos on his cellphone that allegedly showed him abusing a woman before she was found dead inside a motel room.
Nicholas Anthony Ayres, 35, has been charged with second-degree murder and first-degree domestic assault in the death of 37-year-old Destiny Dunn.
The investigation began Aug. 12 when Columbia police responded to a reported cardiac arrest at the By The Way Motel on Range Line Street.
When officers arrived, they found Dunn dead inside a room and quickly became suspicious about the circumstances surrounding her death.
Police later determined the case was a homicide.
Ayres was the person who called 911, according to court documents.
He allegedly told dispatchers that he and Dunn had gotten into an argument while in the shower and claimed she became upset after he said he planned to leave her.
Ayres reportedly told police that Dunn then fell in the shower.
During the 911 call, however, he allegedly acknowledged that she looked like she had been beaten while insisting he had not assaulted her.
When officers examined Dunn, they reportedly found bruising across her body.
Ayres was taken into custody at the motel.
Guests staying in a neighboring room later told police they had heard what sounded like a violent altercation roughly four hours earlier.
During questioning, Ayres allegedly admitted that he and Dunn had been involved in physical confrontations but claimed the incidents were accidental.
Then investigators searched his cellphone.
Police say they found a video recorded two days before Dunn’s death that allegedly showed Ayres repeatedly attacking her.
Investigators also found a photograph of Dunn lying in the bathtub inside the motel room.
A separate video reportedly showed her still inside the bathtub and barely moving.
Those files were recorded approximately three hours before police arrived, according to court documents.
Another video allegedly showed Ayres pacing around the room while Dunn could be heard groaning in the background.
At one point, police say Ayres announced that he was finally going to call for help.
“Hey honey, I’m really calling 911. I have to because I’m not going down for manslaughter,” he allegedly told Dunn.
Authorities have not publicly released further details about the exact cause of Dunn’s death.
Ayres remains jailed at the Boone County Jail without bond as the case moves forward.
