Ricky and Dena

Lafayette County authorities issued a bulletin for the accused killers, who were charged with first-degree murder, assault, kidnapping, rape and sodomy in Spicer's killing.

Just 36 hours after waving goodbye to police, the couple had gone from obscure perverts to accused sex murderers at the top of the heap of America's Most Wanted.

Their pursuit because national news as authorities tracked them via their cellphone calls and credit card purchases. They wandered east across Missouri to the St. Louis area, where they spent several days before continuing into Illinois.

They stopped at some point in the small southeast Missouri city of Perryville, where Riley had a friend, Susan Summers. She admitted to police that the couple told her "they had raped and killed a lady." Their plan, she said, was "to go somewhere and kill themselves."

But they backtracked west to Kansas City, where they apparently bought more meth, then went south and across the Missouri state line to tiny Arcadia, Kan., where they turned up at the home of Davis' sister and brother-in-law, parents of a 5-year-old girl.

The sister, who was unaware of the allegations against Davis and Riley, later told authorities that he made an elaborate display of his newfound Christianity. The couple spent the night at the house.

The next day, May 25, the group decided to have lunch at McDonald's in Pittsburg, a larger Kansas town 20 miles south. They left on the excursion at 11:30 a.m., with the niece riding with Davis and Riley, and her parents followed in another vehicle. But Davis apparently stopped to say that he wanted to go for some other type of food, and the parents agreed to allow the couple to drop her off in a couple of hours.

When they didn't do so, the mother called police that afternoon. Only then did she discover that the couple was wanted for the sex murders.