The officers, led by Hussey, got Rickie to tell yet another version of the story, but this time he officially implicated me. What bothers me most about the transcript of his interview—aside from his testimony landing me in jail and practically destroying my life—was that so many of the questions were leading and the answers incredible.
They began the conversation with my father’s murder in September 1988. Hussey started the ball rolling. “So, tell me about the events of that day.”
“The events of that day is that I didn’t kill my father,” Rickie told Hussey. “My mother and Stacey asked me to come over to the house. When I went over there, he was in the garage. He was laying there rolled up in bedding. I put him in the freezer and a few months later I dug a hole in the garage and buried him. They didn’t say anything, I didn’t say anything, I didn’t ask anything.”
Even Hussey thought that was odd. He asked, “That seems unusual that you wouldn’t ask, why’d you kill him, how’d you kill him?”
He simply responded, “I didn’t,” and then told Hussey that it was Mom’s idea to put the body in the freezer, which she had apparently purchased for that purpose. The body was in the freezer for months until he rented a concrete saw, cut a hole in the floor, and buried it.
Detective McCaskill asked, “How long before did she buy that freezer?”
Rickie said, “It was there when I got there so, I don’t know when she bought it. I never knew she had a freezer. It was just laying on the side right next to the body.”
Then it got weird. His responses became very short and terse, and sometimes nonexistent. McCaskill asked, “When you put his body in the freezer, what kind of injuries did you observe he had?”
His response: “I don’t know, he was wrapped up.”
The detective continued, “So, you never looked at him at all?” Rickie didn’t answer. McCaskill pressed on, “And what’d your sister say?”
“She didn’t say anything,” he said.
“Was she upset?” McCaskill asked.
“Huh?”
He asked again, “Was she upset?”
“I don’t think so,” Rickie replied.
McCaskill seemed a little nonplussed. “Was she relieved? Were they freaking out because they just killed somebody and the dead body’s in the garage?”
Rickie simply stated, “It’d been there for a couple days, I guess.”
“Did he stink? Was he bloated? Did he have any … fluids or anything like that?”
“He was wrapped up. I didn’t see it. I could smell something.”
The detective said, “When you put him in the freezer was he stiff? Like a board?”
“Yeah.”
“Did anything drip out?” McCaskill asked.
“No.”
“Was the bedding wet?” When Rickie replied that he didn’t remember, McCaskill asked, “Was it nasty? Did it absorb any fluids or anything like that?”
“No, not that I know of,” Rickie said. After McCaskill asked him how he knew who the body was, he said, “I knew it was my father. He wasn’t in the house.”
That didn’t make sense to the officer. “You said you never undid the wrapping. So, how’d you know it was your father?”
“I just knew,” he insisted.
“But how?”
“He wasn’t in the house.”
“But that doesn’t mean it’s your father. Why would you believe that your father was there wrapped up in bedding in the garage?”
Rickie didn’t answer that question, and Hussey stepped back in. “See, it’s just strange that at some point somebody wouldn’t ask the questions. I mean, it’s just human nature to inquire about things like that. We’re talking about a pretty serious event here. I know you hated your father. So, I’m thinking you’re going to be pretty happy about this. You know he’s not going to mess with you or your sisters … or your mother anymore. Every time you came to the house it was a confrontation, right? That’s one of the reasons you didn’t go to the house.”
Rickie’s answer was simply, “I wasn’t allowed over there unless he called me.”
“Okay. So, you get over there and you realize that he’s dead in the garage. I mean, that’s a good thing, right?”
Rickie admitted that it was. Hussey continued, “I don’t know why you wouldn’t say, ‘What happened?’ That seems strange to me.”
Both detectives assured him that whatever they talked about that day wasn’t going to affect his deal; it was already done. Even so, he wouldn’t budge on how he knew the bundle was our father, without asking questions or looking inside.
Frustrated, McCaskill insisted, “If I go home and my dog’s not in the house I’m not going to assume my dog’s what’s wrapped up in the blanket in the garage. How did you know it was your dad? Did you search the whole house? Did you check the bedroom? Did you see if he was in the shower? How did you know that the bundle in the garage was your dad?”
“I don’t know how to explain it. I just knew.”
“So you didn’t feel the need to inquire?”
Rickie didn’t answer.
“If my gold fish is dead upside down in the tank, I’m going to say, ‘How’d my gold fish die? Did I not feed him enough or did I feed him too much?’ And that’s a gold fish.”
Hussey interjected, “Yeah it’s just kind of a human thing we’re talking about.”
McCaskill continued, “We’re talking about a human being. We’re talking about a person that breathed air. That lived life. That spawned children. I’m not saying he’s a good guy at all, don’t misunderstand me. I’m just saying that if a living being is no longer alive, natural instinct for every other human being is to inquire whether it’s an accident. Whether it’s a heart attack or sickness. Whether somebody put a bullet to his head. You’re going to ask. I don’t care who you are, you’re going to ask. Especially if you’re going to pick the body up and put it in the freezer. So, either you asked, or you already knew, how he had died. And what we’re here asking you is which is it? Did you … how did you already know how he died? Or did you ask and they say he died this way?”
“I didn’t ask.”
“So, how did you know how he died?”
“I didn’t know how he died.”
“Then how do you know he was dead?”
“Because he wasn’t in the house. I don’t how else to explain it.”
Hussey, apparently realizing that they were chasing their own tails, switched his line of questioning. “Had you ever discussed with your sister and your mother about doing away with your father?”
“No.”
“Then to me this would be a very unusual event for you to come home and find him wrapped up in the garage. I’m trying to put myself in your place. If I had the relationship with my father that you did, and I get to the house and I find that he’s dead in the garage, I’d be happy about that. That would be the weight of the world lifted off my shoulders. I don’t have to worry about him causing me problems in my life anymore. And while we’re on that subject, let’s talk about a phone call that you made to Cheryl.”
Rickie knew exactly what he was talking about. He interrupted Hussey and said, “No phone call. I went over in person. Told her that she didn’t have to worry about … he wouldn’t be at the wedding, he wasn’t around anymore.”
Hussey said, “So now you know what has happened and you know he’s been killed. He’s not coming back. Cheryl’s thought was that you did this for her. She said it was almost like you were giving her a gift.”
Rickie didn’t answer.
“Yes? No?” Hussey persisted.
“Huh?”
“Yes? No? You remember back when you went over and talked to Cheryl?”
“Yes, and I remember what I told her. That he wasn’t around anymore. She didn’t have to worry about him.”
“She asked questions. She said, ‘How do you know that? What if he comes back?’”
“I just told her he wouldn’t be back.”
>
Then Hussey took Rickie down another path. “Who is the lady that … you got arrested for loitering and prowling. Remember when you had a Ryder truck with some duct tape and …”
“No, I never got arrested for anything like that.”
“Well, I got the police report where they stopped you …”
“I wasn’t arrested.”
I can only imagine how he was exhausting the detective. Hussey persevered, “Okay, you were at this lady’s house, somebody you’d been dating. You were near her house with this Ryder truck and the duct tape. You remember that?”
Rickie admitted that he did.
“Okay, what was that about?”
“I don’t really remember.”
“Okay. Alright. You’re not … you’re not working with me, Richard. You know this stuff where we’re not remembering is not helping me. If you want to do this you’re going to have to be forthcoming with me.”
“I know.”
“Or else we’re not going to be able to do it. I know you’re a smart guy but you’re not going to play us. If you’re not going to be forthcoming with me, this’ll be the end of it. We’ll let Stacey slide. It’s up to you.”
Rickie didn’t answer, and Hussey continued, “You understand what I’m saying to you?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t think I’m getting the whole story here. Let’s move forward to September 11, 2003. Tell me about that day.”
“I’m not sure what day it was.”
Hussey must have been about ready to tear out his hair by now. “Okay. Alright, well let’s …”
“I know it was in September, but I don’t remember what day it was.”
“Alright, tell me about what happened with your mother. Start from the beginning on your mom’s murder.”
Rickie began, “Well we went to, uh, went out to eat. Went to a movie and we went home to Mother’s house. Stacey zapped her with a Taser.”
“Okay, what happened to the Taser?”
“Throw it away in the dump.”
“What dump?”
“Whatever the trash picks up.”
Another dead end, so they began discussing the rest of Rickie’s story, which was that he and I supposedly took Mom to dinner and a movie—to Fazoli’s and then the early showing of Charlie’s Angels II at the dollar theater on Colonial Drive—and that Susan stayed home. He told them that I was carrying a Taser that he had purchased at the Spy Store, also on Colonial Drive.
“So,” Hussey asked, “where were you in the house when Stacey shot her with a Taser?”
“I was in the dining room area.”
“Was anything said? I mean did you say anything to her? Was there an argument prior?”
“They were arguing. Stacey was worried that Mom was going to tell ’em about Dad. And Stacey didn’t want to go down for it.”
Now it was getting juicy. Hussey pressed on, “Was there some indication that your mother was getting ready to do that?”
“Stacey felt there was. She just felt that ’cause Mom kept on talking to people that, she said he was in Chicago. He was other places and stuff like that.”
Hussey was buying it. “So … so, the cover story, Stacey was getting concerned that your mother was telling different stories and … thought something might be discovered. Okay. I’ll go along with that. So, at some point Stacey hits your mom with the Taser. Now, I want you to understand something here. We’ve collected a lot of physical evidence. We’ve worked on this case day and night for ages. So, I know exactly how your mother was killed. I was at the autopsy. I was there when they gathered all the evidence. So, I want you to tell me, but I want you to be truthful with me. Because if you don’t I’m going to know. After the Taser was deployed, then what happened? Your mother fell down?”
“Yeah, apparently she fell down.”
“What do you mean apparently? You were there.”
Rickie stated, “I wasn’t … I was sitting … countertop, I was sitting like that. And they were on my side, backside.”
“Okay. So, Stacey hits her with the Taser, she falls down, then what?”
“Then what?”
“Then what?”
“Then she got suffocated.”
“Okay, tell me about that.”
“Put a rag of, uh, what do you call it? Rag of like a bandana thing, like over my mother’s head, face.”
“Okay.”
Detective McCaskill stepped back in. “How long did you hold the rag over her face?”
Rickie responded, “I have no idea.”
“Were you pushing down real hard or were you just kind of … do you remember?”
“That.”
“Okay, so you’re squeezing the nose …”
“Yeah.”
“… and covering the mouth? What was Stacey doing when you were suffocating her?” McCaskill continued.
“Just standing there.”
“Was she over your shoulder or helping hold her down?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, which one?”
“No, she was just standing there.”
“So, she wasn’t holding her feet or arms or anything like that? Just standing over top of your shoulder?”
Rickie didn’t respond, so Hussey jumped back in. “Were you on top of your mother holding her down? I mean she was obviously struggling some. I mean …”
“No, she didn’t.”
“Okay. Did she make any noise? Was she …”
“No.”
“How long do you think it took?”
“I have no idea.”
McCaskill picked it up. “A minute, two minutes, three minutes?”
“I wouldn’t know,” Rickie said.
Hussey let it go and asked, “Once you realized she was dead, when did you do the duct tape?”
“Stacey wrapped her legs and her arms in duct tape.”
“The arms, behind her back, or in front?”
“They were in the front.”
“Okay. How about her face?”
“One, there was one on her mouth.”
“Stacey put that on there?”
“Yeah.”
Rickie told the officers that we wrapped her in two plastic garbage bags, put her in the trunk of her car, and drove her body to a storage unit, where we supposedly put her in a freezer that he had purchased a couple weeks prior. Then, he said, he went back to Mom’s house and changed the locks. Hussey asked him, next, about the house that Susan and I bought.
“You guys bought that house over close to your mom’s.”
“They bought a house.”
“But, by all accounts, you were with ’em when they were looking for the house.”
“No.”
“Well, that’s the information that we got. I don’t think it was a coincidence that that house was bought less than a block away. Your mother told the people that she worked with that she didn’t want her kids that close to her, right down the block. And she didn’t want everybody watching her. She shared that with her coworkers. But she said the only place that Stacey and Susan looked was in the neighborhood. They wanted that house. They wanted a place close. So, that house was bought what eight, nine months before?”
“I think they bought it January, February.”
He denied that there were any plans at that time to kill Mom, but said that we started talking about doing it a few months later. “She was worried about Mom going to tell about what was in the garage.”
“Worried, obsessed would you say?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. So, at some point a plan was hatched as to how this was going to go down?”
“No,” Rickie said, “it wasn’t really. It just happened. We didn’t sit there and plan this how we’re going to do it.”
Hussey was confused. “Well, you bought a freezer.”
“Yeah.”
“You put the freezer in the storage unit. You knew you were going to put her in the freezer because that’s how
you done dad.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. So, there was a plan.”
Rickie started backpedaling. “I’m not saying that we didn’t, actually what happened …”
“You just didn’t know it was going to go that specific night, is what you’re saying?”
“Right.”
Hussey was back on track. “Okay. Alright. But it was talked about. Somebody said, well when we get an opportunity, we’re all together, nobody’s around. We’re going to zap mom with a Taser. That’s it?”
It sounded good to Rickie. “Basically, yeah.”
“So, that night the opportunity presented itself?”
“Yeah.”
Hussey continued, “You moved out some of your mom’s clothes to make it look like she left. Tell me what you and Stacey … obviously Stacey’s with you through all of this stuff.”
“Yeah.”
“She’s helping you move the stuff. When did you move clothes?”
“The next day. That’s all I did. Then a couple days later I started packing things up.”
Hussey asked, “So the days after the murder. Now the people from work are starting to call because your mom didn’t show up at work. Cheryl’s getting concerned. What are you telling her?”
“She talked to Stacey, she didn’t talk to me.”
“Okay. So, after she talked to Stacey then Stacey obviously talks to you.” Hussey put more words into his mouth. “You guys are close. You and Stacey are in this. You’re talking about things. Tell me what’s going on in the days afterwards.”
“Just days afterwards, just we’re picking up and packing everything up and getting everything situated.”
“Were you concerned that Cheryl was going to get the cops onto you guys?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. Tell me about those discussions.”
Rickie answered, “Just general conversation.”
“Well, did you ever talk about maybe we’re going to need to do away with Cheryl?”
Fear of Our Father Page 9
