Christopher Collings, 49, was declared dead nine minutes after he was injected with a single dose of pentobarbital

Missouri carried out its fourth execution this year on Tuesday night. The man condemned to death was convicted in a 9-year-old girl's 2007 murder.

Rowan Ford was a star student whose smile and work ethic won the hearts of her teachers. She loved riding her purple bicycle and her bedroom was Barbie pink.

Christopher Collings was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of Rowan Ford in Stella, Missouri, in November 2007

Christopher Collings had his execution date scheduled for at 6pm on December 3 after spending almost 20 years in jail for raping and strangling the fourth-grader, before dumping her body in a cave

Collings, a father of two now-grown daughters, was convicted of killing Rowan Ford on Nov. 3, 2007, in the small southwest Missouri town of Stella.

The State of Missouri executed death row inmate Christopher Collings by lethal injection Tuesday evening for the 2007 abduction, rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl.

A man convicted of first-degree murder and sexual abuse of a nine-year-old girl has died in prison, according to a spokesperson from the Southeast Correctional Center in Missouri.