Ann Marie Harrison was born February 22, 1974, in Kansas City, Missouri. She was a 15-year-old freshman honor student at Raytown South High School.
On the morning of March 22, 1989, Harrison left her home and waited by her mailbox for the school bus. A stolen blue 1984 Monte Carlo pulled up beside her, occupied by Michael Anthony Taylor and Roderick Nunley. One of the men approached her under the pretext of asking for directions, then forced her into the vehicle, and the two men drove off with her. A girl waiting for a bus nearby saw the car speeding past. When the school bus arrived at Harrison's home and no one answered, the driver noticed her books, purse, and flute case left by the mailbox. Harrison's mother, believing her daughter was still inside the house, initially told the bus driver to continue on. After searching the house and finding no sign of her daughter, she contacted a neighbor, then her husband and police.
Harrison was taken to the home of Nunley's mother, where she was blindfolded in the vehicle and threatened. In the basement of the house, both men raped her. Afterward, concerned that she had seen their faces, the men forced her into the trunk of the car. As Harrison pleaded for her life, both men stabbed her to death with kitchen knives while she was in the trunk. They abandoned the car on a quiet street and left in another vehicle.
Thirty-six hours after the abduction, a neighbor reported the abandoned Monte Carlo. Police determined it had been stolen, and when the owner arrived to retrieve it, he opened the trunk and discovered Harrison's body. A reward for information reached $9,000 within three months. A tipster subsequently identified Taylor and Nunley to police. Both men confessed upon being brought in, though each accused the other of instigating the crime; forensic evidence including semen and hair matched Taylor.
Both men waived jury trials and pleaded guilty before a judge. On May 3, 1991, both were sentenced to death. In 1993, the Supreme Court of Missouri overturned both death sentences without providing a stated reason, and both men were retried. Nunley was sentenced to death again on May 10, 1994, along with additional prison terms for rape, armed criminal action, and kidnapping. Taylor was resentenced to death on June 17, 1994, with additional consecutive terms for rape, armed criminal action, and kidnapping.
Taylor's execution, initially set for February 1, 2006, was stayed by a federal appeals court over concerns about lethal injection methods; the U.S. Supreme Court declined Missouri's request to vacate that stay. Taylor was ultimately executed on February 26, 2014, after writing a letter of apology to Harrison's parents. Nunley was accused in 2006 of attacking a prison staff member with a metal shard; the staff member survived. Nunley's execution, after a prior stay, was carried out on September 1, 2015, following the Supreme Court's denial of further stay requests. He was 50 years old at the time of his execution.
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