Man Orders 6-Year-Old Daughter to Beat Bully as Dad Storms the Schoolbus with Her | Crime Alert 9AM 10.15.25

A Missouri father is wanted by police after allegedly climbing aboard a school bus and ordering his 6-year-old daughter to beat another child. A Florida man known as the “Deacon of Death” is executed for killing two women whose bodies were found in a pond near Plant City in 1996. Drew Nelson reports.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Alert hourly update, breaking crime news Now. I'm Drew Neilson.
A Missouri father is wanted by police after allegedly climbing
aboard a school bus and ordering a six year old
daughter to beat another child. Maurice Fox, aged thirty six,
faces charges a first degree harassment, trespass of a school bus,
and two counts of fourth degree assault. Police say the

(00:21):
incident happened in Ferguson, just outside Saint Louis. Video from
the bus shows Fox pushing past the driver, walking down
the aisle with his daughter and pointing toward a seven
year old student. Hey. The girl then punched the other
child in the head several times. When she stopped, Fox
said alon a crime. Again, the girl struck the victim

(00:44):
a second time before Fox said they needed to go.
Police Chief Troy Doyle called the scene quote disturbing and
completely unacceptable. He said officers had tried to reach Fox,
but that he had avoided contact, but quote, he has
found the time to create a GoFundMe account seeking donations
for his legal defense. You cannot crowdsource accountability. The Ferguson

(01:05):
Florissance School District said it is cooperating with the investigation.
In a statement, the district said, quote, Student and staff
safety is always our top priority, and we will not
tolerate anything that compromises their safety. School buses are an
extension of the school campus. Trespassing on a school bus
and engaging in the behavior described in this incident are
completely unacceptable. Court record show Fox has pass convictions for

(01:29):
armed robbery, aggravated battery, and unlawful firearm possession. A warrant
has been issued for his arrest, with bond set at
one hundred thousand dollars. More crime and justice news after this.
The Deacon of Death is dead. The Florida man executed

(01:50):
for killing two women whose bodies were found in a
pond near Plant City in nineteen ninety six. His name
is Samuel Lee Smithers. The seventy two year old man
put to death by lethal injection at six fifteen pm
last night inside the Florida State Prison near Stark. He
gave no final statement, saying only no sir when asked
if he had any last words. Officials said the execution

(02:12):
was carried out without any issues. It marked Florida's fourteenth
execution this year, the most in state history, with two
more scheduled before November ends. Smithers was a Baptist deacon
when he met both victims, Christy Cowan and Denise Roach,
at a Tampa motel known for prostitution in May of
nineteen ninety six. He brought them on separate days to
a twenty seven acre property where he worked as a landscaper.

(02:35):
Investigators say he engaged in sex with the women before beating, strangling,
and dumping their bodies in a pond on the property.
Days later, the property owner, who knew Smithers from church,
found him cleaning an axe near a pool of blood.
Smithers claimed he was trimming trees and that the blood
came from an animal. Deputies later found drag marks to
the pond where they found both women. Each had had

(02:55):
wounds and strangulation marks. Smith was convicted of two counts
of first degree murder in nineteen ninety nine. His lawyers
tried to block the execution, arguing that his age now
made lethal injection cruel and unusual punishment. The Florida Supreme
Court and the U. S Supreme Court rejected those appeals.
Smithers had once been a church custodian and was previously

(03:16):
arrested for arson and setting fires out a church in Tennessee.
During trial, he claimed drug dealers killed the women and
framed him, but the jury did not believe him and
voted unanimously for death. Governor Ron DeSantis signed his death
warrant in September. Smithers execution was the same night as
a Missouri inmate, Lance Shockley, was executed for killing a

(03:36):
state trooper. Florida now leads the nation in executions this year,
surpassing Texas. The two additional inmates set to die by
next month are Norman Grim Junior and Brian Jennings. The
FBI renews its search for Rex C. Reischert, a Pennsylvania
man accused of sexually abusing two boys in the late
nineteen eighties. Now missing for more than thirty years, Reichert

(03:58):
has wanted on charges of attempt involuntary deviates, sexual intercourse
in decent assault, corruption of a minor, and endangering the
welfare of children. A state warrant was issued for his
arrest in nineteen ninety. Two years later, a federal warrant
followed for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Investigator said Reichert
was caring for two boys aged ten and fourteen while

(04:19):
a relative received medical treatment. He also took them on
weekend camping trips. During that time, he allegedly molested both
children at his Collegeville apartment. Reischer once worked as a
recording studio technician and operated an amusement arcade. He also
invented a board game that was sold commercially. The FBI
says he is skilled with electronics and musical gear. He

(04:41):
often wore wire rimmed glasses and kept his hair in
a ponytail. Leads have surfaced from the northeastern United States, Canada,
and Europe, but none have led to his capture. He
may still travel between those regions. The FBI continues to
offer a reward for information leading to his arrest. If
you have any information on rex C reichshirts whereabouts, call

(05:02):
eight hundred, call FBI, or go to tips dot FBI
dot gov. For the latest crime and justice news, follow
crime alerts hourly update on your favorite podcast app with
this crime alert. I'm Drew Nelson.