Father Charged With Murder After 10-Year-Old Boy's Body Found In Mississippi River

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The father of a 10-year-old boy whose body was found in the Mississippi River was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder.

Pierre Barlee Collins, 33, is charged in the death of his son, Barway. A criminal complaint cited cellphone location data that police said places him near the spot in the river where the fourth-grader's body was found, on the day the boy disappeared. Police had previously said they had electronic evidence showing Collins was in that area. The complaint also said Collins holds two life insurance policies on his son. Collins called the insurer on one of the policies two days before Barway's disappearance to ask about raising the coverage from $30,000 to $50,000, according to the complaint.

Collins has said he is innocent. A family spokesman, Pastor Harding Smith, said earlier Tuesday that Collins maintains that he had nothing to do with Barway's death and hoped the community would withhold judgment.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman acknowledged at a news conference that authorities have no witnesses and didn't have a possible motive beyond the insurance. But he added: "We think it's a strong circumstantial case."

Of the cellphone data that placed Collins near the river where his son was found, Freeman said: "Frankly, no one has a reason to be there unless they're fishing." Collins had no fishing equipment, the prosecutor said.

Collins remained in jail Tuesday, with a court appearance scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

Volunteers had helped search for Barway. On Saturday, searchers from a Boy Scout troop found his body and notified authorities. Officials said the body was discovered about 10 feet from the river's edge in Brooklyn Center.

The criminal complaint said Barway's feet had been bound by duct tape and a piece of duct tape was also wrapped around his torso. The boy's body had been dumped in a storm water cistern, and was found after it came loose and entered the river.

Barway was last seen after school on March 18. Video surveillance from his apartment complex shows he was about to go inside, but then turned around as if he was called over to the parking lot by someone he knew, and he walked away, police said last month.

Video from a school van shows that right before he was dropped off, he had said that he saw his dad and a man who he referred to as his "uncle" nearby.

In a March 25 interview with the Star Tribune, Pierre Collins said he was not home when his son disappeared and he was upset to be considered a suspect.

"I've been working with the police just to bring my son home," he told the newspaper. "I will do whatever they want just so Barway can come home. I have nothing to do with Barway's missing."

His wife and Barway's stepmother, Yamah Collins, also said she and her husband didn't know who took the boy, and they pleaded for his safe return.

The family told the Star Tribune that Barway emigrated from his home country of Liberia to stay with his father in 2011. The father said he wanted "to make him better" and for Barway to eventually go to college. Barway's mother lives in Liberia.

Barway attended Evergreen Park World Cultures Community School in Brooklyn Center, where Principal Sheryl Ray said she remembered him as a "very friendly student" with "a broad smile" and many friends.

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