Court records describe an earlier call reported as accidental before police were summoned to a Columbia motel where Destiny Dunn died.
COLUMBIA, Mo. — About three hours before police were summoned to a Columbia motel and found Destiny Dunn dead, investigators say Nicholas Anthony Ayres called 911, confirmed where he was and then told the dispatcher the call had been made by accident.
That earlier call has become a central part of the timeline authorities assembled in the death of Dunn, 37, of Kansas City. Ayres, 35, of Crane, was arrested after officers arrived at the By The Way Motel on Aug. 12. Prosecutors initially charged him with second-degree murder and first-degree domestic assault, and a Boone County grand jury later indicted him in September. Ayres remains accused, not convicted, and the prosecution’s account has not yet been tested at trial.
Investigators placed the first 911 contact at about 12:21 p.m. Aug. 12. According to the probable cause statement, Ayres told the call-taker the contact was accidental. He nevertheless provided his name, phone number and location before ending the conversation. Police were not dispatched to a reported cardiac arrest at the motel until about 3:22 p.m., when another 911 call described Dunn as being in serious condition. Officers reached the Range Line Street motel shortly afterward and found her dead.
The importance of the noon call became clearer only after investigators searched Ayres’ cellphone, according to the court filing. A photograph and short video timestamped at about 12:06 p.m. allegedly showed Dunn lying in a bathtub with little movement. Another video recorded about two minutes later showed Ayres pacing between the bathroom and main motel room, police said. A woman could be heard groaning. During that recording, investigators allege, Ayres said he was going to call 911 because, in his words, “I’m not going down for manslaughter.”
That sequence placed the alleged statement, the earlier emergency call and the later request for help into a roughly three-hour window that investigators have used to reconstruct Dunn’s final afternoon. The court record does not establish what medical intervention might have changed the outcome, and authorities have not publicly claimed that the passage of any particular number of minutes by itself caused Dunn’s death. The significance of the timeline instead comes from how police say it fits with the videos, Ayres’ later account to dispatchers and the physical evidence officers documented after arriving.
During the 3:22 p.m. call, Ayres allegedly offered a different explanation for Dunn’s condition. The probable cause statement says he told dispatchers they had been involved in an altercation while showering and that Dunn fell after he got out. He also acknowledged that she appeared badly bruised while denying that he had beaten her. A dispatcher gave him instructions for chest compressions, according to reporting based on the filing. When officers entered the motel room, they observed extensive bruising and treated the circumstances as suspicious.
Police then widened their examination to events before Aug. 12. The cellphone contained an Aug. 10 video that investigators said showed Dunn without the facial bruising later seen by officers. A separate recording from late that night allegedly showed Ayres assaulting her repeatedly for more than a minute. Court reporting said the recording included sounds of hitting and showed physical violence. Investigators cited that earlier footage as evidence that contradicted the idea that all of Dunn’s injuries resulted from an accidental fall in the shower.
Neighbors supplied another piece of the timeline. Guests in an adjoining motel room told officers they heard what sounded like a physical confrontation at about 11 a.m. on Aug. 12, according to the probable cause statement. That was about an hour before the cellphone images showing Dunn in the bathtub and more than four hours before police arrived. Their account was included in the charging record as investigators attempted to establish what had happened inside the motel room before the final emergency call.
Ayres was taken into custody at the scene. During a later interview, police said he admitted that he and Dunn had been involved in physical altercations on Aug. 11 and Aug. 12 but described them as accidental. The probable cause statement also noted injuries to Ayres that investigators characterized as defensive wounds. Police ultimately alleged that Ayres assaulted Dunn severely enough to cause her death. His statements and the state’s interpretation of the evidence are expected to be issues for the adversarial court process, where defense attorneys can challenge the reliability and meaning of the prosecution’s evidence.
The initial second-degree murder charge was brought under Missouri’s felony-murder framework, according to local reporting on the filing. Prosecutors paired it with a count of first-degree domestic assault resulting in serious physical injury. The theory tied Dunn’s death to the alleged commission of the assault. A judge ordered Ayres held without bond after prosecutors filed the charges. The case then proceeded through early hearings before a grand jury returned an indictment in September.
The grand jury development moved the prosecution into its next stage but did not resolve the factual disputes that have defined the case from the beginning. ABC 17 reported Sept. 14 that Ayres had been indicted on first-degree domestic assault and second-degree murder accusations. He remained in the Boone County Jail without bond. An indictment determines that a prosecution may continue; it does not establish guilt, and Ayres retains the presumption of innocence.
Dunn’s relatives have sought to keep attention on the person behind the court records. Family members described her publicly as a devoted mother with a caring nature. Their statements have emphasized the children and relatives she left behind rather than the details of her death. Police identified Dunn as a Kansas City resident after notifying her next of kin. The department has not publicly released an extensive biography of her, and officials have kept most of their public statements focused on the investigation.
For now, Columbia police continue to classify the death as a homicide. The recordings, emergency-call records, witness statements and physical findings described by investigators now form the publicly known outline of the prosecution’s case, but many questions remain for later proceedings, including what evidence a judge will permit jurors to hear and how the defense will respond to the state’s interpretation of the phone data. Ayres remains jailed as the criminal case proceeds.
Author note: Last updated September 28, 2026.