More on KC murder 4/26/98 (long--sorry)

[Martha Sprowles]

Our smalltown paper has a long article (two articles, actually) about
the young woman from PA who was found murdered a couple of weeks ago in
Kansas City, where she'd gone to assist clients of the software company
she worked for. The thrust of one of the articles is that this was a
woman who would never have invited one strange man, much less two, to
her hotel room.

The police believe otherwise, however. The two men accused of killing
her do not have a reputation for sexual aggression, although one of
them, Carl Dean Rails (the one Claire Marie Monti had paired off with)
had recently finished probation following his parole from prison for
shooting a man. Friends, relatives and the employer of these two men
(the other one is named Rodney WAYNE Henry) all say that they are very
surprised; that they were extremely well-liked and trustworthy men. In
fact, Rails' victim, who lost sight as a result of the shooting,
appeared on Rails' behalf at his parole hearing, saying Rails had
"suffered enough" for his crime.

The family and friends of the victim, Claire Marie Monti, say that she
was very careful about the people she met, while at the same time was
someone who found it very easy to talk to strangers. She was 32 years
old and had a life of her own, but she still spent most Sundays with her
sisters visiting their parents.

Her friends say that she loved to go to clubs and often proposed
roadtrips to see live bands perform, but she was also "safety conscious,
almost to the point of a near phobia."

"'It's just so out of character for her to invite somebody back toher
room--if that's what happened,' says Marian Bell, who has known Claire
since sixth grade. 'She wouldn't even let good friends come over to her
apartment because she was so cautious.'"

She is described as "just too cautious and too nonpromiscuous" to have
invited the men back to her room.

The part about this story that especially interested me and made me
think about the discussion here regarding why John Ramsey would not
admit that his daughter might have been sexually assaulted is that
Claire Monti's father, Victor, has gone sort of nuts (IMO, of course)
over the question of his daughter's sex life, when it seems to me that
the important thing would be to convict her killers. From the
Doylestown Intelligencer:

"Her friends and family are so upset by police and news accounts of
Claire's death that they've started a letter-writing campaign to let
them know their feelings." This campaign is not about any part of the
crime other than the police's stated opinion that Claire invited the men
back to her room.

"Her parents have high praise for police who caught two suspects they
believe murdered their daughter.

"But they're unhappy with how police and the media have portrayed the
killing.

"'I asked the (district attorney) to just stick to the facts and to
please stop spreading speculation or theory,' Victor Monti says. 'Some
TV stations were calling it a motel, not a hotel. They were making it
sound like she was responsible for this.'

...

"'There's only two witnesses still alive who can tell exactly what
happened and, of course, they are going to tell police a version of
events that helps themselves,' Victor Monti says."

Here is what the police say happened:

Claire worked hard all day at the company which had bought software and
needed her help to learn to use it. She asked some of the people
working there if they'd like to go out with her that night, but they all
had plans and turned her down. She asked them where the clubs were, and
they told her a certain section of Kansas City, but warned her that it
was dangerous for her to go there alone.

She went anyway, first stopping around 6:30 p.m. at Blayney's, a blues
club. She talked to the bartender/owner, asking him where she could
find "exciting things to do." He took her out to the sidewalk and
showed her where the clubs were. She talked to him for about 20 minutes
and then walked out. He said of her, "She was the type of person who
could strike up a conversation with anyone." This is exactly the way
her friends describe her, as exceptionally outgoing.

Around 7 p.m., on the sidewalk, police believe she met Rails and Henry,
who had gone out for a drink. Rails' girlfriend was out of town. Henry
was unattached.

The three of them were seen barhopping, and Rails and Monti "struck it
off" right away. They danced at several places, leaving Henry behind at
some point. Between 11 and midnight, Rails and Monti told Henry they
wanted to go get something to eat, but Monti couldn't remember where
she'd parked her rental car, so Rails offered to drive her around in his
truck. They asked Henry to come along, but he refused because,
according to witnesses, Rails was "visibly drunk." So Henry followed in
his own truck. They found her car, and Rails told her and Henry to
follow him.

On the way, according to the DA, Henry noticed that Rails was weaving as
they drove along the Interstate. Around 12:15 a.m. Rails was pulled
over by cops for following too closely. He was let go with a warning,
and he was not asked to get out of the truck. The three vehicles went
on to a convenience store near Monti's hotel. Shortly after that, the
three were seen heading toward the elevator at the hotel.

"From what we know, it was still pretty friendly at this point,"
according to the DA.

No one saw any of the three leaving the hotel.

About an hour later, the fire department was called to put out a fire in
a nearby dumpster, which turned out to be burning woman's clothing and a
hotel bedspread.

Her nude body was found the next morning by a hotel worker. It was not
immediately clear that she had been murdered, apparently (according to
this newspaper story) it is "not uncommon" for people to slip in
bathtubs and die. A couple of days later a photo was in the paper, and
one of the club's owners recognized her and called the police.

The two suspects, meanwhile, went to work the next morning (Monday the
27th) and were sent out to Liberty, MO, on a remodeling job. The owner
of the remodeling company noticed "They looked real quiet. They really
weren't themselves."

On Tuesday, they went out to another job. The newspapers carried
another story, identifying the death as a homicide, and published a "tip
line" number. A tipster did call and told the cops about her evening
with the two men. Police theorize that one of the two told someone
about what had happened, and that's who turned them in.

From the Intelligencer:

What happened to Claire Marie Monti was chance, police sources in Kansas
say.

She met the wrong men, on the wrong night, in the wrong part of town.

'Do I think this was planned? No, I do not,' said DA Paul Morrison, who
will prosecute the case.

It remains unclear why Monti would allow the men into her hotel room.

Morrison doesn't believe it was 'to provide raw sex, or drugs.'

'There's no indication of that,' Morrison said. 'My sense is that she
went back to that room for some innocuous reason. Maybe to get some
money, maybe to use the bathroom.'

Gyllenborg, Henry's attorney, paints a different scene.

He says Henry will testify Rails and Monti 'were getting romantic' after
they returned to the hotel room.

While Henry channel surfed with the TV remote control, Rails and Monti
were 'kissing, hugging--my client was uncomfortable with all that.'

He said Henry left the room and walked the hotel's long, quiet
hallways. A few minutes later when he returned, Rails had flown into a
rage because Monti had rebuffed his sexual advances.

Gyllenborg said Henry stood by as Rails pummeled Monti with his fists,
then choked her.

'Rodney did not join in on the attack,' Gyllenborg said.

Detective Stutzman said that's not so.

'They both attacked her. It was like this: You ever see a couple of
dogs go after a possum? One dog'll chase it, and then both'll chase it
round and round. That ol' possum--he don't stand a chance. That's what
happened. They both attacked her, and they killed this beautiful little
thing.'

Police sources said Rails wanted to take Monti's body and dump it but
decided to put it in the bathtub instead, perhaps to make it look like
an accident or to wash blood, semen or hair evidence away.

They used towels to wipe their fingerprints from the room, said Det.
Stutzman. They took her clothes and the bedspread from the room. They
drove a few blocks to the Lenexa Business Park and tried to destroy the
evidence by burning it in a Dumpster.

Michael Bartee, the public defender representing Rails, declined to
comment for this report.

Martha

[Maggie8097]

Martha posted a long article about Claire Monti's murder by two men in a Kansas
City hotel room.

***Thanks for posting--very interesting. I hadn't seen anything about this in
my local paper or on the wires.

Maggie

"Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are
wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar."--Edward R. Murrow

[darkstar]

Hi from KC , the part of town where Monti went to party is not considered
that dangerous, but they did say on TV that "maybe people from the East
Coast think
'the midwest is safe.'" Now, I don't know if women going to clubs alone is
"done" on the East Coast, and if it's considered "safe." I think they do
it even in St. Louis, which is said to have more of an East Coast mindset,
but I don't think it is "done" here. Maybe someone else from KC can add to
this. I am wondering if she thought something that was "done" and "safe"
in an East Coast town was also safe here in KC, but I sure don't think it
would be considered safe here. The part of town her hotel was in is
considered safe. Keep us posted Martha...if you find out any more. I am
not SURE, but I think here in KC, a woman out alone at the clubs would be
considered by some types who would also be out at those clubs, to be up for
some action. I am not saying that's right; I am not even saying for sure
that is the mindset overall in KC and whether it is also true on the East
Coast; but I am saying those kindsa-guys are out there. I don't think
women in KC go out to clubs alone, that I know of, but I think maybe they
do in some more Eastern cities. ??? I was in line at an event to get in a
Real Serious Music place, which is not considered a club, and there was a
girl in line alone, because she said her mother was going to come and
didn't come, and there were some guys from out of town and they said "you
can party with us," and they all seemed like nice guys, so I thought, maybe
the younger people do do it, but I don't think it's done at a club-club,
but only at Real Serious People Go There For the Music Places.