LENEXA, Kan. — A horrifying sight after a simple ride to a storage locker. The FOX 4 Problem Solvers have been looking into the story of the human remains found in Lenexa.
Also found: a father and two children living there.
Friday, Justin Rey appeared in Johnson County District Court, charged in the endangerment of those children found with him in the unit. But now our digging has turned up new details about how the human remains were found.
Problem Solver Megan Dillard found new information from an eye witness who had simply tried to help out Rey and his two kids, but now believes Rey had something to do with those human remains.
The father of those two girls found in the storage unit is now facing charges in Johnson County for child endangerment. Friday, Dillard sat down with a man — who wanted to remain anonymous — who just happened to be there when Justin was arrested.
He explained why he was with Rey, and why he believes there is much more to this story.
This man said he and his wife immediately noticed Justin Rey and his two baby girls — a newborn and a toddler, neither in good shape.
“When I saw her hair when she finally took the hoodie off, it reminded me of a cancer patient that’s been through treatment and hair loss,” the witness said.
The couple started asking questions.
“We assumed he was probably waiting on a wife or a girlfriend or whatever.”
That woman never came because, Rey told them, she was dead.
“He told me before we left the restaurant that he lost the child’s mother during childbirth, that she’d passed. And so the story is getting sadder and sadder.”
The story was that Rey was waiting money from the military, and needed a ride to Union Station to take a train out of town. But needed to first stop at the storage unit where he’d been staying since he’d been kicked out of his apartment for not paying rent.
“I said ‘we’ll take you to Uhaul, get what you need, take you to union station.”
The pair but the baby girls in their grandkids’ car seats and drove Rey to Lenexa.
“We walked through the maze. I couldn’t get to that unit again if I had to, going in the same door today.”
The witness said Rey opened the door to packed storage unit. He pulled out a stroller for the toddler, a gallon jug of urine, and a plastic storage bin.
“He got a big cooler out that was this wide and this tall with a handle, telescopic-type handle and pushed it out.”
The witness then noticed behind the cooler, a trail of brown liquid.
“I’m talking three or four puddles this big on the concrete floor of some kind of moisture.”
“I wasn’t smelling anything foreign or foul, but I wondered about that. But like I said, my mind was racing about what’s in these containers.”
At this point, the kind couple wanted out.
“I’m already committed at that time; I can’t just say, ‘well, never mind, just get your stuff. My wife and I are going to head on home.'”
They walked to the sliding glass door to leave the building and suddenly came face-to-face with Lenexa police.
“The police separated us almost immediately.”
The man and his wife left as soon as police said they could, but the image of that leaking brown cooler and those little girls will haunt them.
“You don’t forget things like that. I mean, you just don’t forget things like that.”
Rey was in court Friday — what usually happens is the judge will tell someone what they’re charged with and set the next court date. What was unusual in this case — Rey asked the judge if he could speak.
“I was just letting you know,” Rey told the judge.
“These are allegations. Not that you’re guilty of the charges,” the judge interjected.
“Your officers had held me from being able to even tend to my children,” Rey said.
“You need to talk to your attorney about that,” the judge responded.
The couple told FOX 4 they didn’t feel threatened, but they are “very concerned” now after police on scene told them they can’t find the girls’ mother.
