Danial Rinehart, Alleged Child-Killer and Molester, Claims Daughter Wanted to Have Sex With Him

HARRISONVILLE, Mo. (CBS/AP) A grim tale of child-murder and molestation is unfolding in a Cass County, Mo. courtroom, where Danial Rinehart faces charges of second-degree murder, incest, statutory rape, and child endangerment.

Rinehart's 20-year-old daughter sobbed uncontrollably on the stand Monday as she told the jury how her father began molesting her at age five and impregnated her four times, the first when she was 14.

CBS affiliate KCTV reports that in a video interrogation shown the jury, Rinehart admitted to investigators that he had sex with his daughter and helped deliver their babies, only one of whom is still living. He's accused of contributing to at least one child's death.

In the videotape, Rinehart said his daughter sometimes initiated sex with him. A detective asks him why he thought his daughter wanted to have sex. "By the way she acts," he says. "She would rub my shoulder or my back, and I could just tell."

Crying throughout her testimony, the 20-year-old said her first child died by falling off a couch; another became ill and begged Rinehart to call a doctor, but prosecutors said he contributed to the child's death by not allowing a doctor see the baby; still another child of the alleged incest died in childbirth, said prosecutors

The daughter's second child is the only one still living, now 5, according to KCTV.

Prosecutors said Rinehart and his daughter put the last two babies that died into coolers, sealed them shut and left them at her grandparent's house in the garage.

One of Rinehart's other daughters told police in October 2008 that the family left the property they were living on and moved Gallatin, Mo. She said a few months later, the new tenants on the land in Harrisonville found the dead bodies in the coolers.

The 20-year-old alleged victim of incest said her mother, Linda Rinehart, knew about it and did nothing. She is being charged with child endangerment, says KCTV.