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This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states.
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Summer is here, which means we all want to look and feel our best. A GLP1 may be right for you. Visit orderlymeds.com to learn more about which GLP1 you could be eligible for. Getting started is fast, easy, and happens virtually through telemedicine from licensed professionals. Check it out for yourself. Go to orderlymeds.com podcast that's orderlymeds.com podcast taking care of yourself feels great. Compounded medications are not FDA approved, eligibility required and determined by a licensed provider. Individual results may vary. See website for details.
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You're listening to DNAID brought to you by ABJAC Entertainment. Be sure to check out some of the other great true crime podcasts from this network, including the Murder in My Family, Missing Persons, Scene of the Crime, Zodiac Speaking Beyond Bizarre True Crime, Campus Killings, Below the Surface and Killer Communications. All of these podcasts are available for you to binge on right now. Wherever you listen to podcasts, subscribe where you're listening to this podcast so you don't miss an episode.
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Sam.
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It was 2016. Rhonda Shantae Blankenship was a 25 year old woman who lived with her grandfather Charlie Barnett, in the small community of North Lake Brownwood, Texas. On Friday, May 13, Shantae, as she was known to everyone, was pursuing her favorite pastime, walking. Shantae loved to walk the areas around her small town, listening to music, and she was known for her friendly smiles, hellos and occasional stops to chat as she logged her miles on foot. On Saturday, May 14, a little before 8pm, Chantae's concerned grandfather called the Brown County Sheriff's Office to report her missing. Charlie wasn't able to find his granddaughter. Charlie said that Shantae had last been seen walking Friday evening in the Tamarack Mountain Thunderbird Bay area of Lake Brownwood, her own neighborhood. She had earlier been at the Monte Carlo restaurant where she was known to hang out. She split a burger with a friend and then she and her friend walked together to her friend's house. From there, Shantae set out alone on foot to her grandfather's house, which was a distance of about 500 yards. When Shantae was not home at 10 o' clock and after calling her phone and getting no answer, Charlie started driving around looking for her. It was not like Chanta to stay away from home. And her absence was cause for serious alarm. The next day, Sunday, May 15th. With Shantae still missing, volunteer searchers came out to help the family look for Shantae. As sheriff's deputies began the investigative process. On Sunday afternoon at 5:20pm A searcher found a body that was immediately suspected to be Shantae. It was found in the partially collapsed basement of a creepy abandoned house located on County Road 424, about five miles from where Shantae lived. The dilapidated structure was in an isolated area down an unpaved road through an overgrown area. There were rumors that this empty house was a bit of a party spot for young people looking for a private place to gather. But most of the time it was deserted and desolate. It was evident to those who found the body that Shantae was the victim of homicidal violence. Her family said that she had been badly beaten and the sheriff's office had not allowed them to see her body in order to protect them from the site. The only person who was permitted to view the body was her grandfather so he could provide a definitive ID of the victim, whom he confirmed to be Shantae. A press release from the Brown County Sheriff's Office claims, quote, evidence does support Blankenship to be a victim of homicide. She has been sent to Tarrant county medical Examiner's office in Fort Worth for an autopsy. Charlie confirmed to the media that a homicide investigation had been launched immediately by the Brown County Sheriff's Office and the Texas Rangers. Now, none of this has been stated publicly, but I was told that Shantae was found nude from the waist down. Her pants were found thrown into the deserted basement with her body. For this reason, from the get go Sheriff's office investigators suspected Shantae had been sexually assaulted. And this was confirmed by the autopsy. At the time, all that the sheriff's office would say publicly was that Shantae had been killed by blunt force trauma. An object believed to be the murder weapon had been found and collected at the scene. And authorities had not been able to locate Shantae's cell phone. Let's talk a little bit about Shontae Rhonda. Shantae Blankenship was born on November 19, 1990 in Brownwood, Texas to mom Michelle Barnett. She had a large family with seven siblings and multiple step siblings. Once her mom married Stephen McDaniel, I could not find any mention of who Shantae's biological father was, but her paternal grandfather was a banister. Shantae was a friendly and trusting young woman who was mentally challenged since a terrible case of abuse she suffered as a child. I'm not going to get into what exactly happened to Shantae because it's literally unspeakable. I'll say just that. When she was two years old, she was horrifically abused by a boyfriend of her mother's who was sick of the child's crying and took sadistic steps to quiet her. The result of this abuse was permanent brain damage. Even though she was now in her mid-20s, Shantae was described by her family as having the cognitive abilities of a 12 year old. Shantae was raised by her Barnett grandparents, but her grandmother had passed away a few years earlier, so now it was just her and Charlie. Although she was learning disabled, Shantae took special education classes and went on to graduate from Brownwood high school in 2010. She grew into a very pretty young woman who was tiny at just £90. When she died, she was engaged to be married to a local guy named John Adams. People who knew Shantae described her as a gentle soul, someone who was kind and sweet and giving. She adored bowling and roller skating as well as walking. And she loved flashy, shiny things the way kids do. Another thing that everyone knew about Shantae was that she was very religious. She attended church at North Lake Community Church. Like clockwork, every Wednesday and Sunday, Anne sang in the choir. Shantae couldn't read, but she loved to copy down words and passages from the Bible that she often carried. Shantae's funeral was held on Friday, May 20, at the same church that she regularly attended. Pastor Ron Keener led the ceremony with over 400 people in attendance. The service was closed casket because Shantae was not in publicly viewable condition. As I said at the beginning, Shantae loved to walk. People in the Brownwood Lake community where she lived said her smiling face was a fixture on the town streets and everyone knew her. She was described as being like a granddaughter to everyone, a gentle soul who had no enemies. Shantae had a cell phone that all her music was programmed into, as well as the few phone numbers she needed like her grandfather's. And she would spend her days walking around the town with her headphones on, listening to music and smiling and waving at passersby. Because Shantae was mentally challenged, she didn't always understand the difference between acquaintances and boyfriends. Sometimes she would assume that any male person who waved at her was A boyfriend. Still, her family believed that Shantae would not have gone off with somebody she didn't know. People who knew Shantae said that she was very careful about strangers. And Charlie said that if he came to pick her up from somewhere, she would often refuse to get into his truck, saying she preferred to walk. It was unthinkable that Shantae would accept a ride from someone unknown to her. But it also seemed unthinkable that someone who knew Shantae, a local, could be her killer. Of course, Michelle and Stephen McDaniel were devastated by the news that their loving, sweet, innocent daughter, who remained childlike even in her mid-20s, had been killed. They could not imagine who would have wanted to harm such a trusting, defenseless person. Her mother said, quote, we want to know why anybody would hurt her. As for Charlie, after Shantae was killed, he said to Ktab, quote, she was my whole world, and I don't know what I'm going to do without her. Investigators on Shantae's case were also at a loss as to who could have killed Shantae. But they did have one thing going for them. They had some evidence that would prove to be vital. DNA collected at the crime scene. In June, the Brownwood Bulletin reported that Chief Brown county sheriff's deputy, now Sheriff Vance Hill, said, quote, investigators assisted by Texas Ranger Jason Shea, recovered several items of what we suspect contain DNA evidence, whether it be from the victims, the crime scene, or things that we've done during the investigation, which I don't want to make public at this time. Then Sheriff George Caldwell said, quote, we feel like we may have touched DNA. Hill and Caldwell recognized the importance of the DNA evidence, especially because they were having a hard time cracking the case. Deputy Hill obtained permission to seek an alternative to the backlogged state crime lab for the DNA processing. The BCSO hired the Tarrant County Medical examiner's lab, which would be able to report results within weeks rather than wait for the state crime lab's six months long backlog, even for rush jobs. This was the same lab that had conducted the autopsy on Chantae. In July. Sheriff Caldwell confirmed that the FBI was providing assistance on Shantae's case. He would not address the status of the DNA testing. All Caldwell would confirm at this point was that several suspects had been interviewed and polygraphed during the investigation, and several of these had been cleared. Investigators were still looking at a few persons of interest. It later emerged that a complete male DNA profile had been obtained that was believed to be the killer's and this was used in an attempt to further the investigation. It was submitted to codis, but no hits were obtained. The DNA was also used to eliminate people who otherwise might have remained on the suspect list. For example, Shantae's fiance, John Adams, voluntarily gave his DNA, and it was not a match to that found at the scene. Investigators had him low on the suspect list anyway because he had an alibi. Both his time cards and video surveillance proved that he was at work at his restaurant job on the night Shantae was killed. Shantae's stepdad, Stephen McDaniel, also gave his DNA and was ruled out at the time. Details of the investigation into Shantae's murder were kept under very tight wraps. So tight that several news media outlets filed FOIA requests to require the BCSO to release some records to the media. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ordered the FOIA request to be granted. Records provided to KTAB and KRBC revealed that, quote, investigators have filed search warrants for cell phone information stored at AT&T Sprint, T Mobile, Verizon and West Central Wireless in an effort to get phone numbers and mobile identification numbers of devices that may have been near the scene of the crime on May 13, 2016, and May 14, 2016. The records also reveal that detectives with the sheriff's office have been checking on sex offenders near the scene of the crime to see if they had any involvement in Blankenship's murder. Investigators believed that the killer was likely someone in the Brownwood community because only a local would have known about the remote abandoned house where Shantae had been left. But this investigative avenue, although strategically sound, failed to lead to the killer. Lieutenant Scott Bird of the BCSO explained to me that the area where Shantae was found is quite rural, and one cell phone tower services a wide ranging area of several miles. For this reason, it was impossible to narrow down only those phones which had been at or near the location of the abandoned house on the night Shantae was killed, which was believed to be Friday night. Five months after Shantae's murder, the case was at a standstill. Her family made a public plea for information, and three local business associations and crime stoppers teamed up to offer a $5,000 reward for information. In November 2016, Chief Deputy Vance Hill became Brown county sheriff and inherited responsibility for solving the case. But there were no solid suspects, and sheriff's office personnel were dogged by the knowledge that they had been unable to find Shantae's killer. Chief Deputy of Enforcement James Stroop told the Brownwood Bulletin, it haunts us every day. Everybody that works here. It's a black cloud that follows you around. With it going unsolved, it wears on you. You don't want to leave this unsolved and stones unturned, especially on a case of this magnitude. Now, Sheriff's lieutenant Scott Bird, the lead investigator on the case, whom I spoke with at length, told the Bulletin, we have never stopped working on this case. Somebody lost a life. All of us have had sleepless nights over this. We need justice for the family and for Shantae. Then one night, while watching TV with his wife, a sergeant in the sheriff's office saw a show featuring new DNA technology that was helping to solve crimes. The sergeant brought this idea to Lt. Byrd, who did some research and then convinced Sheriff Hill and the district attorney to proceed with this angle. They had the crime lab isolate a DNA profile from the evidence taken from Shantae's body and the crime scene. The BCSO then contracted with Parabon Nanolabs to perform phenotyping analysis on this profile to see what it could reveal about her killer. On November 8, 2017, after having the suspect's DNA profile for just four weeks, Parabon produced the computer generated image resulting from the DNA profile being run through its snapshot software. The image was presented to the public by New Brown County Sheriff Vance Hill in a press conference where he said Parabon's snapshot was provided DNA from this investigation and developed a composite profile that includes eye color, skin color, hair color, face morphology, and detailed biogeographic ancestry. In other words, the sketch showed what the suspect likely looked like. He was white with very fair skin, of European descent, blue or green eyes, light brown or blonde hair, and a few freckles. I'll post this image on our social media sites. Sheriff Hill made clear that the image was not an actual photo of the suspect, but asked that if the public had any information about the person believed to be depicted in the image to please contact the sheriff's office. No doubt he was hopeful that someone would call in and say, that looks just like my cousin and it would provide them with a lead. But what he got was a lot better than that.
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Summer is here, which means we all want to look and feel our best. A GLP1 may be right for you. Visit orderlymeds.com to learn more about which GLP1 you could be eligible for. Getting started is free, fast, easy, and happens virtually through telemedicine from licensed professionals. Check it out for yourself. Go to orderlymeds.com podcast that's orderlymeds.com podcast taking care of yourself feels great Compounded medications are not FDA approved, eligibility required and determined by a licensed provider. Individual results may vary. See website for details. Summer is here, which means we all want to look and feel our best. A GLP1 may be right for you. Visit orderlymeds.com to learn more about which GLP1 you could be eligible for. Getting Started is free, fast, easy, and happens virtually through telemedicine from licensed professionals. Check it out for yourself. Go to orderlymeds.com podcast that's orderlymeds.com podcast taking care of yourself feels great. Compounded medications are not FDA approved, eligibility required and determined by a licensed provider. Individual results may vary. See website for details.
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As soon as the BCSO released the image of the suspect, indeed tips started coming in as to the suspect's possible identity. Michelle McDaniel, Shantae's mom, said that her own son, Shantae's brother, Cutter, thought he recognized the face right off the bat. That's because it was someone he knew well. It was someone his age in town who had bullied him in school but had grown up to be friends with his and Shantae's cousin. Others called in the same name to the tip line. BCSO officials began hunting down Ryan Derrick Riggs. Ryan Riggs was 21 at the time Shantae was killed. He lived with his parents about a mile from her. He was an acquaintance of Shantae and her fiance, John's attending the same church on occasion. When Shantae went missing, Ryan was one of the volunteers who helped search for her. He attended her funeral as one of the congregation. He came to the funeral home for the visitation afterwards and shook hands with her stepdad, Stephen McDaniel. He attended candlelight vigils in Shantae's honor. He posted her photo on his Facebook page when she was killed, and he was known to frequent the area around the dump site where he had left Chantae. He was wanted on an unrelated illegal dumping charge at a location near the abandoned house. Apparently, Ryan's parents had given him some cash to drop the trash at the dump, but instead he left it in an unauthorized area and no doubt pocketed the money. The trash contained items with the Riggs family name on them, so the source was easily identified. But littering is not exactly in the same criminal category as murder, and Ryan Riggs had never done anything to arouse investigators suspicion with regard to Shantae's case. He had only a juvenile record, nothing Major that would set off alarm bells. He came from a nice, respectable family. His mom worked at a bank and his dad was a substance abuse counselor at the nearby prison. Lt. Bird told me that Ryan Riggs was not even on their radar. Prior to the release of the snapshot, police drew up a warrant for the arrest of Ryan Riggs on the dumping charge so they could arrest him on that offense and then talk to him about the Shantae Blankenship murder, for which he was the subject of multiple tips. But they couldn't find him. When they went to his parents home, he was not there and he stayed away aware that they were looking for him. He would not turn up for six days. Ryan's parents, Jason and Michelle, were concerned about their son. He had not come home since the Riggs were visited by four deputies from the BCSO who told them they were looking for their son in connection with the dumping charge. This seemed like a lot of manpower to send out on a dumping case. And Jason and Michelle worried that Ryan might have been involved in something much more serious because his behavior since the phenotype image of Shantae's killer had been released had been suspicious. When the image was initially released to the public, Michelle and Ryan discussed it. He admitted that he had seen it. It did not occur at that point to Michelle or Jason that the somewhat generic image depicted their own son. What parent would want to recognize their child in the vague image of a murderer? That evening, Ryan left the house going to see a friend. He said he never came back, and his parents later found out that he had been living under a bridge for days. When he failed to come home, clearly eluding authorities, they started to fear that he had a hand in Shantae's murder. They posted messages to him on Facebook asking him to come home, to no avail. On Wednesday, November 15, 2017, after work, the couple went home to find a note from their son. He had been in the house in their absence and left a note. The note read, go to church and see what God gives me the courage to do. Michelle went outside to get her cat, who was acting strangely, and in the yard, to her surprise, was her son Ryan, and he had something to tell her and Jason. Their worst fears were realized. At Ryan's request, The family of three headed to the regular Wednesday 6pm Service at North Lake Community Church. Outside the church, Jason beckoned over Pastor Rob Keener, who was greeting the congregation at the door. The following is a recounting of what happened next from the Brownwood Bulletin. Jason asked Keener to come with him to the side of the church. I sensed the urgency of the moment. Keener said he saw Ryan Riggs standing with his mother. When Ryan saw me coming, he was facing me and began to cry, Keener said. He grabbed me and hugged me and embraced me and didn't want to let go. He was sobbing. He said, I came to church tonight to take care of something. I need to make something right. I knew what was coming. I knew it was not about the trash incident. The first thing he said was, I'm a murderer. I need to confess that. Keener prayed with Ryan in the parking lot and told him, what you've done is a horrible, horrible thing and there will be tremendous consequences. A lot of lives have been hurt by this. After the Wednesday night service began, Keener said Ryan confessed with much emotion. He said, I murdered her. I did it. And it was a state of shock in our church in terms of how various ones received the news from our people to hear one of our own. Some were angry. Some were absolutely forgiving. At 6:58pm after the church service, Pastor Rob Keener called Sheriff Vance Hill. The sheriff could not believe his ears. Ryan Riggs had just turned up at church, and not only that, he confessed in front of the entire congregation. Sheriff Hill agreed to allow Jason and Michelle to drive their son to the law enforcement center 25 miles away to turn himself in. Pastor Keener and his wife and another couple joined the caravan. When Ryan arrived. He was greeted amicably by the sheriff and was taken inside to sit down with lead investigator Scott Bird and Texas Ranger Jason Shea. They spoke for several hours. Afterwards, the BCSO released a statement saying, quote, riggs gave a confession as to the manner and means of the murder of Shantae Riggs. Confession is consistent with the evidence located during the investigation. Investigators have recovered additional evidence based on the confession of Riggs. Ryan Riggs, the sheriff said, knew things that only Shantae's killer would know. And Ryan voluntarily gave a DNA sample which confirmed that indeed he had been Shantae's killer. Michelle and Jason Riggs later said that they were extremely thankful for the humanity and compassion with which they and their son were treated by the sheriff and his office. Although their home was searched by BCSO authorities, they were treated professionally and with kindness and respect. News of the arrest of Ryan Riggs for the murder of Shantae rocked the Brownwood community. Michelle and Stephen McDaniel posted a Facebook video emotionally declaring their relief and thankfulness that their daughter's murderer had been captured. Tempered with Disbelief. This man went to church with her. Michelle said, he's just a kid himself. In fact, Ryan Riggs mom, Michelle Riggs, often gave Shantae a ride to church, and the two often sat together during the service. On occasion, since he would sometimes attend church with his mom. Ryan would even be in the car with Shantae and his parents. Sometimes the Riggs dropped their son at home and took Shantae out to lunch. At a press conference announcing the arrest, Sheriff Hill stated, quote, it's a great burden off our entire department, off of the family. It's just a great feeling. I hope the folks in the county can be a little more at ease when they go walking or enjoying life with the family. Sheriff Hill also acknowledged how invaluable the Parabon technology was in solving Shantae's case. He said, quote, without the snapshot profile, we would not be here today. It cost $4,000, and that's probably the best 4,000 this county has ever spent. The actual price of the parabon phenotyping was 3600. This cost was split by the BCSO and the district attorney's office, with both of those organizations utilizing drug seizure money to fund the expense. Lt. Bird told me that the relatively small BCSO had already way exceeded its budget for forensic testing in this case because they were so determined to solve it. Investigator Byrd said in a statement, we were determined to solve this case for Shantae and her family, but we had nothing tangible to go on. It seemed like snapshot might be able to point us in a useful direction. Lt. Byrd had no idea how right he was at the time. The snapshot provided by Parabon is fairly generic and generally resembles the snapshots produced by the lab. In many other crimes. The suspect is almost always depicted at age 25 because the DNA profile cannot give clues as to the age of the DNA donor. But in this case, the piercing blue eyes, face shape and hair color are dead ringers for Ryan Riggs, who was approaching his mid-20s when the image was published. And thanks to his guilty conscience, no doubt he saw only himself when the image appeared in the media. As Sheriff Hill succinctly put it, quote, the profile made him nervous. With Ryan Riggs arrest came the release of additional information about Shantae's murder. The sheriff said that investigators believed that Shantae was assaulted and killed at another location and was dumped where she was found deceased. And this turned out to be correct. Ryan Riggs told Lieutenant Byrd that this is how the whole thing happened. Ryan said that he had always had a desire to rape and murder someone, anyone. It was a long standing fantasy of his. On that Friday night in May of 2016, Ryan had been driving around in his pickup truck and had seen Shantae walking alone. Of course, Shantae knew Ryan, since she was very close with his mom and attended the same church. And Ryan recognized that Shantae was an easy target on which he could enact his murderous fantasies. He lured her into his vehicle with the promise that they would listen to some music. He drove her to a popular lookout spot at North Lake where they sat in the truck and listened to some songs. Then he drove Shantae to a much more secluded place where there was an abandoned trailer home. Again, he parked and put some music on. And this time, he put his arm around Shantae. And while they were sitting there, he choked her until she lost consciousness. He raped her in the truck. When he was finished, he drove to the abandoned house where he planned to dump her. But when he got there, he realized Shantae was moving. She was still alive. So Ryan went to the pickup truck bed and retrieved a broken lawnmower blade he had picked up when he was mowing the grass at his and Shantae's church. He beat Shantae to death with the blade. Then he threw her her clothing and the blade into the basement of the dilapidated structure and drove off. He threw Shantae's cell phone out the window of his truck into a barrow ditch along the roadway. All of this information matched up exactly with what BCSO investigators knew about Shantae's case. The autopsy confirmed that she had been sexually assaulted. The cause of death was a crushed larynx, indicating that Shantae had been strangled, just as Ryan said. She had also suffered blunt force injury, which was actually multiple blows to Shantae's head, neck and torso. The lawnmower blade found in the basement with her body was confirmed to have caused these injuries. And her blood was on the blade. DNA was obtained from semen found inside Shantae. And touch DNA had been found on the murder weapon, the lawnmower blade. These DNA samples yielded profiles that came from the same male, Ryan Riggs. And even though 18 months had passed since Ryan had thrown Shantae's phone out his window, A sheriff's deputy was able to locate it in the barrow ditch just where Ryan said he had chucked it. The murder of Shantae Blankenship qualified as a capital murder under Texas law. In Texas, the system does not recognize the degrees of murders such as first and second that are applied in many other states. In the Lone Star State, capital murder is any one of nine different kinds of homicide and the punishment for capital murder is either life imprisonment or the death penalty. One of the qualifying types of murder is one in which the defendant intentionally commits the murder during the commission of another felony, such as an aggravated sexual assault. This was why Ryan Riggs actions qualified as capital murder and he was charged with that crime and held without bail while a sitting grand jury considered an indictment. On November 27, the grand jury handed down an indictment of Ryan Riggs for capital murder. The indictment alleged that Riggs caused Shantae's death, quote, by choking her, stomping her, striking her with a lawnmower blade or other blunt force, and was in the course of committing or attempting to commit the offense of kidnapping or aggravated sexual assault. Bail was denied. Ryan would stay in the Brown County Jail until his trial. While working toward the criminal trial of Ryan Riggs, the district attorney prosecuting the case, Michael Murray, considered whether the state should seek the death penalty for Ryan. Many different factors came into play, per BrownWoodTexas.com's Sheriff Vance Hill, answering a question from commissioners during the Commissioners Court meeting Monday morning, said Murray has not decided if he's going to seek the death penalty. At this point. We're still checking on several things during the course of the investigation. There are a lot of contributing factors that go into that. On December 4, 2017, Judge Stephen Ellis issued a gag order on all parties to the Capitol case, a somewhat rare measure that prohibits the legal parties from publicly discussing the case. He said that he did so in order to ensure a fair trial. Meanwhile, Ryan's public defender, John Wright, filed motions for a $500 court attire clothing allowance for Ryan to cover four shirts, three pairs of pants and a belt, and requesting that the prisoner not be shackled or recorded during the defense team's visits with him. The defense wanted Ryan to look respectable in court, not be dressed in a prison jumpsuit. Judge Ellis granted these motions. The news that Ryan Riggs was getting what appeared to be kid glove treatment did not sit well with Shantae's family. They were upset that they were repeatedly uninformed about court dates for proceedings involving Ryan Riggs and that Ryan's seemed to be being treated like a celebrity. The McDaniels voiced their frustrations that Ryan's rights seemed to be taking priority over those of the victim, their daughter Shantae. In January 2018, a pretrial hearing set the trial date for Ryan Riggs for the fall of 2019, more than 18 months away. Another hearing in August of 2018 set a firm trial date of September 30, 2019. At this hearing, some of Ryan's defense strategies became apparent. Assuming that they would be faced with the death penalty, his attorneys planned to mount a vigorous defense, attempting to mitigate Ryan's guilt even though he had confessed. They wanted to find a way to demote the case's designation from capital murder to murder, which required a much less stringent sentence. Now brace yourselves, because this part is hard to stomach. Ryan's attorneys made a motion demanding access to an 1800 page child protective services file pertaining to Shantae's child abuse case from when she was 2 years old. Apparently, the defense had learned that Shantae had been abused as a child by a male non family member, resulting in her mental impairment. The defense theory reflected in the motion was that Shantae's abuse, quote, probably caused her to more readily consent to sexual activity. What they were getting at was if they could show that Shantae might have readily consented to have sexual intercourse with Ryan Riggs, they could argue that the sex was consensual and not the result of force or deception on the part of Ryan. And if there was no rape, there was no capital murder. Per brownwoodtexas.com, the motion stated the requested records are likely to be crucial to Mr. Riggs defense. They may well serve as the basis for the submission for the lesser included offense of murder rather than capital murder where the death penalty is sought. In other words, the records may provide evidence of mitigating circumstances. The motion continued to make the point that a juror could find that evidence of Shantae's consent to sexual activity, quote, reduces the moral blameworthiness of the defendant. It's really nauseating, but not surprising to think that the defense hoped to use these records regarding the horrific abuse that happened to Shantae to re victimize her by getting their client reduced charges for what he did to her. Unfortunately, the district attorney's office had subpoenaed the CPS records first, so they could not really justify denying them to the defense. This may be one of the reasons that the state offered Ryan Riggs a plea deal. In February 2019, it was announced that Ryan Riggs had pleaded guilty to capital murder and agreed to a sentence of life without parole. He accepted the deal on condition that prosecutors would not request the death penalty. The district attorney, Michael Murray, said in a statement after the sentencing that he believed that Ryan Riggs deserved the death penalty in this case. This was a heinous, violent, and utterly heartbreaking crime. He said, the appalling nature of Riggs brutalizing a vulnerable young woman in this way cannot be put into words. My office supports capital punishment for crimes of this cruel nature. There was never a doubt in my mind that this murderer deserves to be executed. But Murray went on, there were many factors that led him ultimately to decide not to seek death for Ryan Riggs. Among these were the costs to taxpayers of a lengthy trial and appeals, the burden on Shantae's family of an endless and painful legal battle, and Ryan's lack of a criminal history. Murray went on, quote, likewise, the fact that Riggs voluntarily confessed, first to his church congregation and later to law enforcement and his history of mental illness are significant considerations that could not be ignored in this analysis. Finally, we also took into consideration the wishes of the victim's family in this case. Shantae's family consented to and approved of the plea agreement. They are relieved to finally have closure almost three years after losing her, and thankful that they will not have to endure a trial or the state and federal appeals that Riggs would be entitled to after a trial. My mission of ensuring that the citizens of our community cannot be harmed has been accomplished as Ryan Riggs will never set foot in the free world again. Ryan Riggs was locked up for the remainder of his natural Life. In early 2020, Michelle and Jason Riggs, Ryan's parents, gave a series of interviews to journalist Steve Nash of the Brownwood Bulletin that told their side of the story. They said that on Friday, May 13, 2016, the last night Shantae was seen alive, Michelle and Jason left home for game night, and their son Ryan was in his room playing video games. They passed Shantae walking on their way and waved at each other. When they returned home a few hours later, Ryan was still in his room playing video games. Jason Riggs told journalist Steve Nash, quote, we just let Ryan know we're home. And he said, okay. He was still doing what he was doing when we left. He was playing video games and watching tv. We had no reason to think that he had even left the house. It seems that the whole process of luring Shantae into his truck, asphyxiating her, raping her, murdering her, and dumping her really didn't take that long at all. The next day, Saturday, Michelle Riggs had heard from a friend of Shantae's that Charlie, Shantae's grandfather, was looking for her. On Sunday, with Shantae still missing. The members of her church organized a search and both Michelle and her son Ryan had driven around in the company of John, Shantae's fiance, combing the area for the missing young woman. According to Michelle Riggs, after they learned that Shantae was found dead, she and Ryan and Ryan's friend had all embraced and cried together. Ryan had killed her not even 48 hours earlier. So what drove Ryan Riggs to rape and brutally murder Shantae Blankenship? We have some insight into his psyche thanks to the Brownwood Bulletin series. I want to note that Shantae's family was not at all happy with this expose on Ryan Riggs. They feel that the Riggs family should not try to diminish their son's responsibility for the crime and that Shantae, not Ryan Riggs, is the victim here. I tend to agree and don't want to excuse Ryan Riggs in any way, but it's worth addressing some of the things Riggs parents said about their son in the interest of understanding what makes a murderer out of a seemingly normal young man with a supportive family. Michelle and Jason described their young son as intelligent, likable, inquisitive and a hard worker. He had a close relationship with his parents. But sometime in his mid teens, Ryan started to change. He began experimenting with marijuana and exhibiting signs of depression. His parents tried to help but also found that attempting to intervene with their son would just result in arguments that were not productive. Then Ryan ended up in a hospital after trying to cut his wrists in a suicide attempt. A blood test taken by the hospital showed that he had been using meth. He said it was just one time, but this seems doubtful. Ryan continued to worsen and medication and counseling for his depression did not stick. Michelle says, quote, he would have angry outbursts real easily. His parents didn't read the signs until it was much too late. Michelle said, quote, by the time we really got to see that something was really wrong and really going on, it was after Shantae was killed. So that was Ryan. According to his parents, who are of course biased in their view of their son, Lt. Bird had some things to say about his own interactions with Ryan Riggs. He told me that in his hours long interview with Ryan in which Ryan confessed, the young killer admitted to having urges to commit rape and murder. And when he talked about this and about what he did to Shantae in detail, he showed no emotion whatsoever. He was very matter of fact about it. He wanted to rape and kill a woman. Shantae was there and he seized the opportunity. Whether Ryan had any genuine feelings of regret about this is a matter of debate. Pastor Keener told Lt. Byrd that Ryan had indeed been crying when he told him outside the church what he had done. But the congregants who witnessed him confessing to murdering someone differ as to whether he actually seemed repentant, whether he had any feelings of remorse or not. It does not seem likely that Ryan Riggs would have confessed had the DNA snapshot not driven him to it. He might have even gone on to kill someone else had he gotten away with killing Shantae. At Ryan's sentencing hearing, Michelle McDaniel was afforded the opportunity to speak to her daughter's murderer. She said tearfully, you took somebody very precious from us for what reason? We don't understand. That little girl never did anything to anybody. We deal with the pain every day. I don't understand why. I want to know why. We're not bad people. We could have fought for you to have the death penalty and we did not. After Ryan was sentenced to life and led away, Stephen McDaniel, Shantae's stepfather, said she got her justice. The family, he said, supported the plea bargain and the life sentence for Ryan Riggs. Even though they believed Ryan deserved to be executed, they wanted finality and closure after three long years. This case was particularly difficult for the citizens of Brownwood because both the victim and the killer were members of the 18,000 person community. Pastor Keener drove home the dual sorrow of the situation, saying, quote, the support of our North Lake Community Church family continues to extend to both families involved in this tragedy. In the courtroom after the sentencing, Jason and Michelle Riggs and Stephen and Michelle McDaniel, parents of the killer and of the victim respectively, spoke to each other for the first time in all this, mutually consoling one another. Stephen McDaniel said that he and his wife recognized that what Ryan Riggs did is not his parents fault. He said, quote, we're not only losing a child, they're losing a child. We don't hold them accountable. It touched me. I feel for that family, I really do. Michelle and Jason Riggs are able to visit their son ryan in prison three times a month. Stephen and Michelle McDaniel visit Shantae's grave even more often. After three years, Shantae Blankenship's case is solved thanks to forensic genealogy. And if you are one of the bad guys, they're coming for you. Special thanks to Brown County Sheriff's Office Lt. Scott Bird for speaking with me about this case.
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Thanks for listening to this episode of dnaid. Before you leave, please let me tell you about some important things related to the show. If you'd like to support this podcast and in the process get access to early and ad free episodes as well as bonus content like crime scene photos, you can sign up for a Patreon subscription for only $5 a month by heading over to patreon.com dnaid. Of course, you're welcome to contribute more than $5 a month. We rely on Patreon funds to pay for the original source materials I use
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to research each episode.
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If Patreon isn't your thing, you can also show your support with an ABJAC Insider subscription through Apple Podcasts. It costs just $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year. Your ABJAC Insider subscription will give you the same benefits for not only dnaid but for all of the shows on the ABJAC Network like Killer Communications and Campus Killings. Head over to Apple Podcasts and find the DNAID page or look for the ABJAC Network to get started. If you're on social media, we'd love to interact with you. There's DNAID is on every major social media platform. Search your favorite platforms for DNAID Podcasts to find us. We also have a YouTube channel and our website is DNAID podcast.com. you can find links to all of these anytime in our show notes. If you need to reach the show, contact us by emailing dnaidpodcastmail.com finally, if you want to pick up some fun DNAID merch and represent the show, visit the store at www.customizedgirl.com s DNAID podcast. DNAID is researched, written and hosted by me, Jessica Bettencourt. It's produced by me and Mike Morford of ABJAC Entertainment Music by Connor Bettencourt.
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