AK AK - James Dale Ritchie, Anchorage AK serial killer, July-Aug 2016

We have confirmation of something I have suspected for a while, the existence of a serial killer operating in Anchorage, Alaska this year. James Dale Ritchie was killed by police in downtown Anchorage on Saturday after he fired at officers when they attempted to question him about an unpayed cab fare. The gun in Ritchie's possession has now been linked to five unsolved murders that occurred over the summer, including two double murders.

These murders caused significant unrest in Anchorage, and there have been whispers of SK activity in the area for a while this year.

Links:
https://craigmedred.news/2016/11/15/alaska-serial-killer/
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/alaska-cop-shooter-s-gun-used-5-homicides-amid-serial-n684426

Discuss more below

In the three days since, police uncovered the unsettling news: the revolver used by Ritchie to strike Salao at least four times in the lower body was already known to Anchorage police.

Ballistics matched it to the July 3 deaths of Jason Netter and Brianna Foisy on a bike path near downtown Anchorage, the July 29 murder of Treyveonkindell Thompson on an isolated street and the Aug. 28 deaths of Bryant De Husson and Kevin Turner at Valley of the Moon Park in downtown Anchorage.

Read more at ... https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...9517c8-abdf-11e6-8f19-21a1c65d2043_story.html

LE is looking at this as an investigative lead since the gun isn't registered to Ritchie. They're seeking more info about him and any possible associates.

Wonder if he's been to Kenai???

Hard to believe he only killed people for 2 months...

:thinking:

Indy Anna said:

In the three days since, police uncovered the unsettling news: the revolver used by Ritchie to strike Salao at least four times in the lower body was already known to Anchorage police.

Ballistics matched it to the July 3 deaths of Jason Netter and Brianna Foisy on a bike path near downtown Anchorage, the July 29 murder of Treyveonkindell Thompson on an isolated street and the Aug. 28 deaths of Bryant De Husson and Kevin Turner at Valley of the Moon Park in downtown Anchorage.

Read more at ... https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...9517c8-abdf-11e6-8f19-21a1c65d2043_story.html

LE is looking at this as an investigative lead since the gun isn't registered to Ritchie. They're seeking more info about him and any possible associates.

Click to expand...

Eyewitness sketch in relation to one of the double homicides matches Ritchie. This is the guy.

saw this yesterday. just amazing he had this spree over the last few months. the guy has multiple arrests with weapons going back 20 years so i'd say this guy has more than the 5 bodies he did this year. had he gotten rid of that gun and simply gotten in a shootout with a different gun they'd have never solved it. amazing. the secrets that died with this guy blow my mind.

Police seem to be treating him like a prime suspect in the other killings, according to this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...-police-encounter_us_582cdc18e4b030997bbd606a

It also implies that police wanted to talk to him as a possible witness to the cab fare theft, and notes that he lived in West Virginia for a while.

Also looking at his suspected victims, they're all over the map. But they all seem to have been people that a certain segment of the population might see as "undesirables." Two had histories of drug abuse, one was non-binary (trans), one was mentally ill, two (three including the officer he fired on) were not white.

If the areas he was targeting were known to be areas for drug dealing or cruising, that might have been his motive, especially given his own background with drug use landing him in prison. (Also burglary, but I'm going to take a wild guess that he was stealing stuff to pay for his habit.)

This is a total guess based on nothing except looking for anything the victims might possibly have in common that could point to a motive. I'll probably be proven wrong when we know more about him or learn if he had victims elsewhere.

This article has some really interesting insights into his personality: https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/cri...oting-implicated-in-five-anchorage-homicides/

After he was arrested for selling drugs in 1998:

Ritchie pleaded no contest to felony misconduct involving a controlled substance in the third degree. He was sentenced to three years probation.

In a letter to the judge in his case, Ritchie wrote that he "lay in bed every night thinking about how I've ruined my life. Then I sit up crying wishing I could go back to when I was in high school."

Ritchie wrote he would have "chosen a small Division II school to go play football at instead of a Division I college."

"I want to finish college, raise a family and buy a house," he wrote. "Instead as a felon I'll never be able to get a good job."

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So if he was in and out of prison and unable to get his life back on track, which sounds like the case, maybe he was delusional and trying to "save" others from the same fate? He had psychiatric medication at one point but it doesn't say if they were prescribed to him or obtained elsewhere. I don't know.

I'll stop spamming this thread now, though!

EDIT: The article also has a partial timeline of his whereabouts, which I'll distill below.

1994: Graduated high school in Anchorage, AK.
1998: Was arrested for the first time for selling drugs out of an apartment in Anchorage. Had a gun at this time. Pleaded no contest.
1999: Arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. Had a loaded gun in his car at this time.
2000: Filed for a business license in Alaska for a company servicing vending machines. Unknown if it was successful.
2002-2005: Arrested several times for parole violations in Alaska. Spent time in halfway houses.
2005: Arrested for burglary in Anchorage. Had eight "flex cuffs." Two guns not belonging to the home's residents were found at the scene. Pleaded no contest.
2007: Released; no arrests in Alaska after 2007.
2009: Last application for a Permanent Fund dividend (paid to all Alaska residents who live in-state for a full year).
2011: Last known address in Anchorage until February 2016.
2011-2016: Spent at least some time in Virginia, where his parents live near the West Virginia border. Dealt with traffic violations in Harrisonburg/Rockingham District Court, VA in 2013 and 2014. Also spent some time traveling "the lower 48."
February 2016-Present: Was in Anchorage and probably not homeless, but police don't know his whereabouts in recent months.

Ritchie was paying attention to/following news coverage of the murders using his phone:

They now know that Ritchie was, indeed, paying attention to coverage of the case and to police announcements. Castro said evidence on his phone shows he had viewed news coverage of the double murders last week.

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http://www.ktuu.com/content/news/Po...mong-Anchorage-killings-secret-401633246.html

From PricklyPear's link (bbm): "2011-2016: Spent at least some time in Virginia, where his parents live near the West Virginia border. Dealt with traffic violations in Harrisonburg/Rockingham District Court, VA in 2013 and 2014. Also spent some time traveling "the lower 48."

I wonder if he spent anytime in Northern Colorado in 2015? :thinking:

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/new...inked-2-people-killed-1-survived-in-shootings

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...e-Serial-Shooter-Has-Colorado-Drivers-on-Edge

kai said:

From PricklyPear's link (bbm): "2011-2016: Spent at least some time in Virginia, where his parents live near the West Virginia border. Dealt with traffic violations in Harrisonburg/Rockingham District Court, VA in 2013 and 2014. Also spent some time traveling "the lower 48."

I wonder if he spent anytime in Northern Colorado in 2015? :thinking:

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/new...inked-2-people-killed-1-survived-in-shootings

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...e-Serial-Shooter-Has-Colorado-Drivers-on-Edge

Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up, Kai. I'm going to link your post over there also for our colleagues.

kai said:

From PricklyPear's link (bbm): "2011-2016: Spent at least some time in Virginia, where his parents live near the West Virginia border. Dealt with traffic violations in Harrisonburg/Rockingham District Court, VA in 2013 and 2014. Also spent some time traveling "the lower 48."

I wonder if he spent anytime in Northern Colorado in 2015? :thinking:

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/new...inked-2-people-killed-1-survived-in-shootings

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...e-Serial-Shooter-Has-Colorado-Drivers-on-Edge

Click to expand...

"ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The horrific shooting of an Anchorage police officer has led to an unexpected break in a series of outdoor deaths that have gone unsolved for months and left people uneasy to use the city’s extensive trail system.

Ballistics tests matched the gun to two double homicides and a single killing last summer that helped set off fears a serial killer was roaming the Anchorage trails, picking off one or two people at a time.

But the chance discovery — linking the weapon used in the wounding of an officer with five unsolved murders — doesn’t mean the suspect killed in the police shooting committed the earlier murders or even had possession of the gun in July and August when five people were shot down in public places.

“What I’d be looking at is to see what the evidence is and which way that points us,” Anchorage District Attorney Clint Campion said. “I think the firearm is a significant lead in that direction, and there’s other investigation that need to be done.”"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...9517c8-abdf-11e6-8f19-21a1c65d2043_story.html

After months of silence, police open up about unsolved Anchorage homicides

Investigators publicly affirmed Wednesday that they believe James Dale Ritchie killed at least one of the five victims in a spate of summertime homicides in Anchorage linked to a single uncommon gun. ...

In a Facebook live video posted Wednesday, APD Capt. Bill Miller and Lt. John McKinnon spoke to an online audience in a wide-ranging conversation that unveiled fresh details in what had previously been tightly controlled investigations.

They cautioned it's still too early to say if Ritchie killed anyone other than Treyveonkindell Thompson, who was found dead on an East Anchorage street on July 29.

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https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/cri...e-open-up-about-unsolved-anchorage-homicides/

From today.

http://www.ktuu.com/content/news/Su...der-suspect-James-Dale-Ritchie-408672035.html

“He wanted a chemical engineering job … He was super intelligent,” said Alan Hottinger, who lived next door to Ritchie and Ritchie’s family for at least two years in Broadway, Virginia.

By all appearances, Ritchie lived a quiet life in the remote, rural community of 3,700 people. But his recent whereabouts – places he lived, cities he visited – are now under investigation by the FBI as authorities look to compare homicide cases in which Ritchie is a suspect to unsolved murders outside Alaska...

Police refused this week to discuss the cases, other than to say the probe continues as detectives work to prove if Ritchie, or someone else, pulled the trigger in a pair of double homicides...

The analysis of homicides linked to the revolver Ritchie was carrying, including efforts to compare the killer's method of operation to other cases, is continuing at the FBI’s offices in Quantico, Virginia, a spokeswoman said.

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Confirming what I think we all already knew. James Dale Richie has officially been linked to all 5 murders as of today.
http://www.ktva.com/apd-confirms-james-dale-ritchie-killer-5-anchorage-murders-827/

Dashcam video shows police encounter with accused serial killer James Dale Ritchie

Surveillance video obtained today by KTUU shows the moments leading up to a fatal gunfight between Anchorage police and accused serial killer James Dale Ritchie.

The footage above was captured early on the morning of Nov. 12, just a couple of hours into the shift of Officer Arn Salao. Salao, who was investigating a report of unpaid cab fare downtown, noticed a man walking alone and attempted to stop him.

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Video can be viewed at the link.