Ritchey Faces Potential Life in Prison, if Convicted on Murder Charges
“Actually, on Memorial Day I went down to the cemetery and I put a flower on the kid’s grave and told him, ‘Little guy, we found your mother and I hope to make her pay.’” – Thomas Dewey
This story has been updated with information from Ritchey’s June 10 initial appearance and arraignment in Geuaga County Common Pleas Court.
Whoever left for dead the body of a newborn boy in Thompson Township on March 25, 1993, did so before Google searches and genealogy websites, a time when local law enforcement relied on boots on the ground to solve a case.
But it was an online database that found the suspected murderer of the child who would become known as Geauga’s Child. The suspect, 49-year-old Gail M. Eastwood-Ritchey, of Upper Valley Drive, Euclid, was arrested by Geauga County Sheriff’s Office deputies Thursday. Investigators accuse her of dumping her one-to-three-day-old biological child — who the Cuyahoga County Coroner’s Office determined had been born alive, but could not determine a cause of death — in a wooded area on Sidley Road more than 26 years ago.
It is believed wild animals partially dismembered the child and dragged his body to the side of the road, where two newspaper delivery women discovered the child and called police.
Geauga County Prosecutor Jim Flaiz convened a special grand jury June 6 that issued an indictment against Ritchey for aggravated murder and murder. She was arrested shortly thereafter in Cuyahoga County, found lying in the back seat of her husband’s car, according to authorities.
Monday morning, Ritchey appeared before Geauga County Common Pleas Court Judge Carolyn Paschke for her initial appearance and arraignment. Attorney Steven Bradley, of Marein & Bradley, has been retained as her defense counsel. Seated in the back of the courtroom was her husband, Mark Ritchey.
Paschke told Ritchey, if convicted, she faces a possible life sentence on the aggravated murder charge, with a chance of parole after 20 years, and a maximum fine of $25,000. On the murder charge, she also could face a possible life sentence, if convicted, with a chance of parole after 15 years, and a potential fine of up to $15,000.
Ritchey entered a written plea of not guilty to all charges and Paschke set her bond at $250,000/10 percent cash or surety. The case was assigned to Judge David Ondrey for future proceedings.
Ritchey remains in the county jail, as she has not yet posted bond.
During a June 6 afternoon press conference at the Geauga County Safety Center, Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand explained how detectives used DNA collected from blood and tissue samples from the infant that had been stored all these years and plugged the genetic profile into an online genealogy database.
Utilizing a Virginia-based DNA technology company that created a genetic genealogy analysis and conducted genealogical research, Detective Donald Seamon found distant relatives of Ritchey and, despite her years of eluding justice, traced their DNA to her front door.
“Through this process and much hard work, a family tree was produced consisting of over 1,400 people in an effort to identify the parents of Geauga’s Child,” Hildenbrand said. “These people were from around the world, in different countries, when they started. They were narrowed down by their DNA that they had previously submitted voluntarily to an online database. With their permission, we were able to compare their DNA to one another and to Geauga’s Child.”
A search warrant was issued to obtain DNA from Ritchey, who authorities believed was the child’s mother.
“At that time, she admitted that she had birthed a child, placed him in a trash bag and left him in a wooded area,” Hildenbrand said, adding Ritchey kept referring to her child as “it.”
“She also admitted to a similar crime that occurred two years prior to the birth of Geauga’s Child. That case currently is under investigation,” he said.
The sheriff added authorities were told this is the 51st case in the nation solved using this DNA investigative tool.
In addition, the sheriff said Ritchey, while admitting her involvement, has shown “absolutely no remorse and takes no ownership” of her child.
“I don’t know how you could get up the next morning like that, let alone 26 years later, and raise a family and go on like a normal person,” he said.
Ritchey is married — to the father of Geauga’s Child — and the mother of three adult children. Hildenbrand said charges have not been brought against the husband/father, but he is under investigation.
“Her statement was that she hid the pregnancy and that nobody knew she was pregnant,” he added.
Over the past two and a half decades, Hildenbrand said deputies followed up on hundreds of leads and conducted dozens of interviews, but made no arrest.
Hildenbrand said Seamon was inspired by the Golden State Killer case that was solved in early 2018 utilizing this same technology.
“We would reach out to these family members that we identified in the family tree and we would talk to them. They would confirm who their family members were, because we were putting together the family tree through open source network, like birth records, obituaries, and then we would either ask them if they would voluntarily submit to DNA or they had already submitted their DNA to a private source, and we would ask them if they would be willing to put it into the public source, which is where we were able to put the baby,” explained Seamon. “When they did that, we were able to compare the relationship not only to the other family members, but to that of the baby. So we started with a 1,400-person family tree and essentially narrowed it down piece by piece until we got to the mother.”
He added the first results were received in September 2018 and that Ritchey’s DNA was submitted for testing two weeks ago.
Though the facts surrounding the death of the child were few, they were tragic enough to urge the community into action.
Community members christened the baby “Geauga’s Child” and raised money to give him a proper burial and gravestone in Thompson’s Maple Grove Cemetery
The epitaph reads:
“Geauga’s Child lies here now in safety – just too late.
“Too late to save his life,
“Too late to make things right,
“But not too late to teach us all to love and cherish life.”
Those who had investigated the case for years in vain were ecstatic from the breakthrough.
“About a week before Memorial Day the sheriff called me and said it was the first call he made,” said retired sheriff’s office Detective Thomas Dewey, who was the first deputy on scene. “He wanted to advise me that they found the baby’s mother and I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ He said, ‘Nope, we’ve got her and she admitted to it, also.’ I said, ‘Oh, thank God, now I can rest in peace.’”
Dewey, then a sergeant, was on state Route 166 in Hambden when the call came in.
“The call was for a possible dead infant laying in the road,” he recalled, adding he first talked to the two women who found the baby. “They thought it was a doll and then realized it was a human.”
Over the years, Dewey, a Thompson Township resident, said he followed up on numerous tips, but they all came up empty. Eventually, he retired from the sheriff’s office in 2005.
“It kind of bothered me all along. One, because it happened in my backyard here. I periodically would stop down at the gravesite and tell the kid, ‘I’m sorry this happened to you and I’m trying to do what I can to find your mother to find out why it happened to you,’” Dewey said. “And I kind of felt like it was going to be a lost cause.”
Dewey said he was disgusted to hear Ritchey showed little remorse for what she had done and referred to her infant son as “it.”
He added, “Actually, on Memorial Day, I went down to the cemetery and I put a flower on the kid’s grave and told him, ‘Little guy, we found your mother and I hope to make her pay.’”
City of Chardon Police Chief Scott Niehus, who worked the case early on as a sergeant in the sheriff’s office, said he was relieved to know the mystery surrounding the death of Geauga’s Child has finally been solved.
“The news of today’s arrest is a reflection of the tenacity of the many investigators who over the last 26 years have refused to give up on Geauga’s Child,” Niehus said. “I’m proud of the detectives that finally broke this case open and I commend them for their efforts. This case affected many us in ways that are hard to put in words. At least now, we can put our demons to sleep and find solace in knowing that the person responsible is going to be held accountable.”
