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Two weeks ago, Ridgeway's body was exhumed under the direction of the Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office and the Vineland Police Department from the Newfield cemetery where he was buried. The exhumation is one of only a handful performed nationally each year and was the result of an arduous process to obtain a court order allowing it, officials said.
A more extensive autopsy than the one performed in 1979 is being conducted. Investigators hope to obtain evidence that will help them determine who killed Ridgeway. The exhumation was done after police obtained new information about the crime that they have not disclosed but that led them to push for a new autopsy. Documents requesting permission for the exhumation say a member of Ridgeway's family may be a suspect in his death.
Ridgeway's body was so badly decomposed when it was discovered by a squirrel hunter that authorities at the time were unable to establish just what killed the tall, brawny man. He was found fully clothed, wearing a black shirt, black corduroy jeans, light-brown boots, a watch and a gold necklace, according to newspaper reports at the time.
Although tissue samples from Ridgeway's body taken in 1979 had been retained by the N.J. State Police Forensics Laboratory in Trenton, the petition seeking the exhumation indicated that a new autopsy could help investigators establish whether any bones in the victim's skull or neck had been fractured.
There had been "no visible signs of violence on the body" nor use of drugs or alcohol, according to the report of the original autopsy, performed by W. Irvin Atkinson, Cumberland County's chief medical examiner at the time.
John Pompper, 18, Ridgeway's half brother, told police during the initial investigation that the pair had gotten into the big Oldsmobile F-85 owned by their mother, Bonnie Pompper, who asked Ridgeway to give his brother a ride to the Cumberland Mall because it was so cold. She had given Ridgeway a dollar to pick up a pack of cigarettes for her.
About a mile from home, John Pompper told police, Ridgeway stopped to pick up two male hitchhikers. John Pompper was dropped off at the mall. He remembered that one of the hitchhikers asked to be taken to a bar.
Two days later, Bonnie Pompper reported Ridgeway missing. Three days later, John Pompper left Vineland to join the military. Three weeks later, Ridgeway's body was found. "We just always assumed it had been the hitchhikers who killed him," Rhoda Turner said.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/new_jersey/11295791.htm
A more extensive autopsy than the one performed in 1979 is being conducted. Investigators hope to obtain evidence that will help them determine who killed Ridgeway. The exhumation was done after police obtained new information about the crime that they have not disclosed but that led them to push for a new autopsy. Documents requesting permission for the exhumation say a member of Ridgeway's family may be a suspect in his death.
Ridgeway's body was so badly decomposed when it was discovered by a squirrel hunter that authorities at the time were unable to establish just what killed the tall, brawny man. He was found fully clothed, wearing a black shirt, black corduroy jeans, light-brown boots, a watch and a gold necklace, according to newspaper reports at the time.
Although tissue samples from Ridgeway's body taken in 1979 had been retained by the N.J. State Police Forensics Laboratory in Trenton, the petition seeking the exhumation indicated that a new autopsy could help investigators establish whether any bones in the victim's skull or neck had been fractured.
There had been "no visible signs of violence on the body" nor use of drugs or alcohol, according to the report of the original autopsy, performed by W. Irvin Atkinson, Cumberland County's chief medical examiner at the time.
John Pompper, 18, Ridgeway's half brother, told police during the initial investigation that the pair had gotten into the big Oldsmobile F-85 owned by their mother, Bonnie Pompper, who asked Ridgeway to give his brother a ride to the Cumberland Mall because it was so cold. She had given Ridgeway a dollar to pick up a pack of cigarettes for her.
About a mile from home, John Pompper told police, Ridgeway stopped to pick up two male hitchhikers. John Pompper was dropped off at the mall. He remembered that one of the hitchhikers asked to be taken to a bar.
Two days later, Bonnie Pompper reported Ridgeway missing. Three days later, John Pompper left Vineland to join the military. Three weeks later, Ridgeway's body was found. "We just always assumed it had been the hitchhikers who killed him," Rhoda Turner said.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/new_jersey/11295791.htm
