Hi MyJessieAngel,
I spent most of the morning reading all the information on Ricky's case. It is very sad. I know personally how this can become an obsession. I spent years trying to prove my cousin did not commit suicide. Several pieces of info I read on Ricky's case were so similar to my cousins. She cashed her paycheck and paid her rent, all her due bills, and then the remainder of her check was missing.
She was found dead in her apartment. Shot through the back of the head. No finger prints on gun. No residue on hand. No drugs in her system. There seemed to have been a struggle in her apartment. Apartment cleaned immediately after police left, by owner. Her mother had all testing done privately due to LE feeling it was an open and closed case of suicide. There were so many subtle clues that people would not understand unless they knew her. She did not commit suicide.
At the time of her death she had made statements to the effect that she was going to go public with information about a known drug dealer and his connection to local police officers (there were 3 officers that knew that he was a dealer, but they turned their heads and let him deal drugs out of his business along with other illegal activities). This dealer ruined the lives of many young girls in our area. My cousin succeeded in getting one of them out of his grip. This made the dealer mad. She told him to his face he was going down, she would see to it. He hired a hit man (a friend of his) to kill her. I cannot prove it. Years later I talked with one of the crooked cops (the only one left on the force); he had made captain and had his own office. I was at the police station getting mug shots from old cases for my book. I asked him if we could talk, he said sure. I knew he had been at the crime scene. I ask him if he remembered my cousins death and he said yes. I told him I didn't think she committed suicide and wanted to know what he thought. He said, "Excuse me, let me shut this door" He shut the door to his office and proceeded to tell me that I should not dwell on it and that the man who killed my cousin was on death row in another state... "But if you ever tell anyone I said this I will say you are lying"
This confirmed all that I suspected about each person involved. But to keep myself safe I had to just swallow my pride and keep my mouth shut. The dealer was still running his business and selling drugs at the time of my conversation with the captain. I knew there was nothing I could do to prove anything.
Justice was served when the killer was put to death in Virginia for the murder of a young man (drug dealer) in 2003. The business man who hired the killer was free and living the good life, but not for long. I made it my mission in life to take the things he cherished most... his business and his money!
He didn't know me or my connection to the young woman he had murdered. I got proof he was dealing cocain out of his business and also buying food stamps for cash (federal offence). He no longer has a business (the government owns it now), is $343,000.00 in hidden cash poorer, and spends his days in a federal prison.
Sometimes we have to get justice in a different way... just make sure it is done legally.