New details continue to emerge in the case of a man accused of keeping the dismembered remains of his wife in a Kansas storage room with him and his two young children.

The Kansas City Star reports that on Oct. 24, an employee of a Lenexa storage facility off of 9250 Marshall Dr., contacted police after Justin Rey was caught sleeping inside one of the units with his kids. When authorities arrived, they noticed with Rey with a toddler and a newborn.

When an officer asked about the mother of the children, Rey allegedly admitted she was inside a cooler and some of the totes in the storage unit. He claimed he couldn’t find all of her body parts into the cooler, so he used totes to carry the rest of her, according to police. Officers found dismembered body parts of Rey’s wife, Jessica Monteiro Rey, exactly as Rey described.

 

On Sept. 25, the family checked into a local hotel and stayed there for a little less an a month. On Oct. 20, while still staying in the hotel room, Jessica gave birth in the bathtub. Court documents indicate that Rey told authorities that his wife became depressed after giving birth to their youngest child, and subsequently, committed suicide inside the hotel room. In another statement to detectives, Rey said his wife “just died” and didn’t give an explanation.

The suspect said shortly after his wife’s death, he placed her on a bed in the hotel room and allowed his toddler child and the newborn to lay next to her while he took pictures. He claimed the children stayed with Jessica’s lifeless body for two days before he decided to dismember her. He told police that the children were present when he starting chopping up his wife’s body parts.

On Oct. 23, Rey allegedly contacted the front desk of the hotel room and while attempting to disguise his voice as a woman, told the front desk attendant they was checking out. The attendant said she later saw Rey walking out of the hotel room with the children, while pulling a large cooler with a black top.

Within a few days, a man and his wife spotted Jey inside a Waldo restaurant with his children. The man said hey felt bad for Rey and the children, especially since the toddler didn’t look healthy.

“It was just a sad sight to us,” the man told the Kansas Star.

The man also said that Jey told him his wife died during childbirth, yet he didn’t seem upset or broken about it. The man later dropped Rey and his children off at storage facility.

Jey allegedly told authorities that once he was inside a rented storage unit, he hide the cooler containing his wife remains inside the unit and stayed there with his children until authorities found him.

Rey was arrested and charged with aggravated child endangerment, contributing to a child’s misconduct, and abandonment of a corpse.

Although the victim’s exact cause of death is still pending, authorities stated they found blood and human tissues in the bathroom of the hotel room the Rey family stayed in. They also found traces of blood throughout the room.

Check back with CrimeOnline as additional details become available.

[Feature Image: Justin Rey/Johnson County Detention Center]