PA PA - Shaun Ritterson, 20, Bucks County, 10 June 1977

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Even if the uncle's DNA was a match, short of a confession or eyewitness coming forward, LE would have had a hell of a time with this case. It's too bad that now the family is unlikely to get a definitive answer to what happened to her.
 
Just a very odd story and that uncle looks shady from the word go. Why was he so fixated on Shaun?
 
So re the DNA, what is the next step in the case? I mean since the DNA is corrupted does that mean nothing more can be done and that the case is "closed"? Apparently, there was another murder in Levittown around the same time. Matt, have you ever heard of that case?
 
scriptgirl said:
So re the DNA, what is the next step in the case? I mean since the DNA is corrupted does that mean nothing more can be done and that the case is "closed"? Apparently, there was another murder in Levittown around the same time. Matt, have you ever heard of that case?
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What was the other murder? It's crazy the more research I do the more murders I find.
 
I read how she was "gutted" like a deer and it just made me think that the person was trying to get rid of something, or hide something, maybe a fetus? No reason to do this to a person, what a horrible thing to endure and I pray she died quickly. But the only reason I can think of to do this is to maybe cover up a pregnancy. Any thoughts? You know he had to be a hunter, and hunters would know about such things.
 
I don't think Shaun was killed to hide anything bodywise. I think this was a crime of rage and passion.

Scarlett, if you google "Girl on Church Hill", a series of articles re Shaun will come up. If you read the comments at the end of each of those, someone makes mention that case in Levittown.
 
The early tips on this case are very strange.

And the cairn weirdly reminds me of The Blair Witch Project. I believe her cairn was around much earlier than the movie, of course.
 
I still think her uncle did it. I really wish they could prove that one way or another.
 
There is no way I believe that Harry could be capable of such a harmonious action. I just found out about this and his death. Harry was a good man.
 
I wish there were some way to clear his name so he can rest in peace. Along with the suffering from his cancer he had to go to his grave trying to prone his innocents.
 
I was there when they found Shaun Ritterson's body. I grew up on Buckingham Mountain (no one called it Church Hill). I was fifteen at the time and swimming in my neighbor's pool when the father and son spotted her. We later found a pentagram carved in the woods near the spot where the body was found so there was a lot of talk about her being killed in a Satanic ritual. My family owned the property that butted up next to the graveyard. A lot of teenagers partied there and at the quarry at the bottom of the mountain. Shaun lived in Bristol (where I live now ironically) and was last seen at the Capri bar (still there) in Levittown which is a 40--45 minute drive to Buckingham. My guess is the killer knew the spot from partying there. Also, my neighbor said she had heard the sound of a truck tailgate slamming that night.
 
La Regina, was there a lot of local chatter about Shaun's murder? Is there any talk about it now?
 
I have been working with La Regina for the last 12 months researching the Shaun Ritterson murder. I've been making linkages between her case and other strange stabbing, slashing and mutilation murders that happened in PA from the mid to late 70s although there is a long shot connection from 1969. Is anyone interested in hearing about this?
 
And an FYI to anyone interested in this case: information online and even in this thread is filled with disinformation. The timeline posited in all the 2012 articles contradicts what the coroner said in the original 1977 newspaper coverage which may contradict the assertion that the uncle did it. Most people agree she was last seen on Friday, left the Capri near closing early Saturday AM. Yet coroner says her body was placed SUNDAY morning 7 to 8 hours before discovery. That would be around sunrise Sunday June 12th. There was no blood found in her apartment. No one knows where the murder took place. So many questions to pursue here. I could share if anyone is interested. I really need help at this point since I have formulated another theory that ties to other PA cold cases...
 
La Regina said:
I was there when they found Shaun Ritterson's body. I grew up on Buckingham Mountain (no one called it Church Hill). I was fifteen at the time and swimming in my neighbor's pool when the father and son spotted her. We later found a pentagram carved in the woods near the spot where the body was found so there was a lot of talk about her being killed in a Satanic ritual. My family owned the property that butted up next to the graveyard. A lot of teenagers partied there and at the quarry at the bottom of the mountain. Shaun lived in Bristol (where I live now ironically) and was last seen at the Capri bar (still there) in Levittown which is a 40--45 minute drive to Buckingham. My guess is the killer knew the spot from partying there. Also, my neighbor said she had heard the sound of a truck tailgate slamming that night.
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bbm - in the 2012 articles it was not reported like this. It said her father and other family went to the coroner's office and id'd her body there. Which version is correct?

Gutting a body and taking organs is not very common. It would be interesting to know which organs were taken. All? Or just some, for example the female reproductive organs? Cover up of a pregnancy and satanic ritual both popped in my mind as well. If only female organs were taken I would think she might have been pregnant but they would have been able to establish this through a blood test even back then, right?
 
Elainera said:
bbm - in the 2012 articles it was not reported like this. It said her father and other family went to the coroner's office and id'd her body there. Which version is correct?

Gutting a body and taking organs is not very common. It would be interesting to know which organs were taken. All? Or just some, for example the female reproductive organs? Cover up of a pregnancy and satanic ritual both popped in my mind as well. If only female organs were taken I would think she might have been pregnant but they would have been able to establish this through a blood test even back then, right?
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Reading her post, I took it to mean her neighbors (the father and son) spotted her body, not Shaun's family. It would stand to reason if La Regina was swimming in her neighbor's pool, the neighbor family would have been outside swimming, too and spotted Shaun's body. What a terrible thing to see.

Assume LE has focused on the people who saw Shaun the night she went missing, who she was hanging out with, if she left with someone. Then check to see which of those people were familiar with the place where her body was found. It sounds like a lot of the local teens/young adults hung out there. Did any of them bring along strangers, people from out of town to those parties, esp. someone older? I just have a hard time imagining kids in their teens to early 20's committing such a gruesome murder back in those days, especially if they were well known to others around town. Not impossible, but improbable. If it were a local teen/young adult, the profile for that kind of killer is usually someone who is a loner or social outcast - not the kind of person to hang out at the local party spot drinking beer, smoking pot, etc. MOO
 
Betty P said:
Reading her post, I took it to mean her neighbors (the father and son) spotted her body, not Shaun's family. It would stand to reason if La Regina was swimming in her neighbor's pool, the neighbor family would have been outside swimming, too and spotted Shaun's body. What a terrible thing to see.
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rsbm

Of course, that must be how it was meant! Makes much more sense. Thanks Betty.
 
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