Episode 36- Jessica Ridgeway : Evil is Apparently Real

Amanda: Hey there, all you true crime fans. I'm Amanda. Kori: And I'm Corey. Amanda: And welcome back to Colorado crime. Let's have a little joke before we discuss yet another horrible case. Kori: What is the Grinch's least favorite band? Amanda: I don't know. Kori: What the who. Amanda: In real life. I love the who's. It's one of my favorite movies. Kori: Yeah. So who's down in whoville liked Christmas a lot. Amanda: I should have been a who. I like Christmas a lot. You can't see it, but I'm wearing a shirt that says I do it for the hose and it's got Santa on it. It's very funny. Kori: That is. Amanda: Know. I know. Sure, other people are supposed to tell me that, but let me just tell you how funny it is. Well, I have a really huge announcement. So I filmed an episode for a tv show, and I am so excited to finally be able to share with you. I filmed back in July, and I filmed for investigation Discovery, and it's a show called Murder in the heartland. And the case was a case that I covered really early on. I think it was like our 6th episode, but it was the murder of Harlem globetrotter trainer Thomas Bashline. So this will air on December 20 at 08:00 p.m. I'm super proud of it and I'm super excited to be able to share it with you. So I'll remind you guys again as it gets closer, and maybe we can do, like, a watch party or something after. I'm not sure. I'll have to work out the kinks there. But either way, I hope you guys check it out, and I will link that podcast episode in our show notes so you guys can check it out if you haven't already. Yeah. My first encounter with a murderer, I believe, is the title of the episode. Kori: Nice. Amanda: Yeah, you're fancy. Kori: Now. Amanda: I know. I'll have to start waving like the mayor babies signing photographs. Kori: You will. I'll have to be like I remember her when I'm rocking in my rocking chair in front of the nursing home. Amanda: I'll be in my rocking chair, too. Don't act like I'm not an old lady. All 32 years of me. Well, cool. Do you have anything you want to add before we jump in? Kori: Yes. It's the holiday season. Amanda: Yay. Kori: So I thought maybe I'd throw in something a little different and give you a mocktail recipe to wow your friends and family. You could make this your signature mocktail that you bring to parties or have at parties. Or you could add liquor and make it your signature cocktail, so it's called the cranberry mint mocktail. Does everyone have a piece of paper and a pencil or a pen? Amanda: We'll share it. Kori: We'll give you time. Hold on. Okay, it's one cup of cranberry juice, one four cup of sparkling water. Or you could use sprite or whatever you want. Sometimes sparkling water is kind of gross for me, so I would probably use seven upper sprite or even ginger ale. Amanda: Oh, ginger ale would be really good. That's a good idea. Kori: Two tablespoons of mint syrup, eight to twelve frozen cranberries, some sprigs of french mint and crushed or cubed ice. In a large measuring cup, measure your cranberry juice, your sparkling water and your mint syrup. Stir that all up to combine and pour into two cocktail glasses filled with the ice and cranberries and garnish with a sprig of mint. And then if you wanted to add your liquor, you could do that while you're mixing it up and pour it into your cups and happy holidays. Amanda: Yum. I'm going to try it. Kori: Yeah, you should. It sounds delicious. I think you can get mint syrup off of Amazon. Amanda: Oh, okay. That's a good. Kori: Something. It's a little something something for parties. Amanda: Yeah. Our little contribution to your happy holidays. Now you can get Christmas with your mom, right? Kori: Exactly. Whether you drink or not. Amanda: Or you don't, and you just booze your mom. Yes. Kori: You don't. You could make it for others. You could make two different versions. That could be the kids version. It doesn't matter. Nobody has to know that you don't drink your business. Amanda: Exactly. I don't drink. Kori: We don't either. Amanda: Woohoo. But not because we're like morally against it. Kori: No. Amanda: I just have a really addictive personality and I just don't like time for me. Kori: That's not true. Sometimes I'll have a chocolate martini because I do enjoy. Amanda: Oh, that was my first drink that I had legally on my birthday when we went to Chicago together after work that night. Kori: Oh, yeah, that is right. Amanda: I know. I felt very fancy. Kori: They are fancy. Amanda: They are very fancy. Kori: All right, let's get into it now. Amanda: All right. This week we are going to discuss the abduction and murder of Jessica Ridgway. This case does discuss the murder and sexual assault of a child listener. Discretion is advised. Kori: Our story starts out a few months before the abduction of Jessica. On May 20 eigth, a 22 year old woman was jogging alone in Westminster. She was at Ketner open space, a space she was relatively familiar with when she was attacked from behind by a man holding a chloroform soaked rag, which is like, 1990s style, right? Luckily, she was able to fight the small man off and notify the police. She gave a description of him. He was five eight, brown hair, average build, which is like 50% of the male population. Amanda: True. Kori: Another jogger was chased by a man matching this description in 2010, but we couldn't find if the two were linked. We wouldn't be surprised, though. The community was put on alert, but the assailant remained unidentified until October. But we will get into that later. Now let's talk about the most important person in this case. Jessica Christine Ridgway was born on January 23, 2002. She would have been celebrating her 22nd birthday in just a few short weeks had she not been stolen from this world at the tender age of ten. Jessica was a typical ten year old. She was an independent girl who loved cheerleading. She had many friends. She loved animals and excelled in her fifth grade class at Whit elementary school and was absolutely adored by her family. At the time of her disappearance, Jessica's parents were in the middle of a terrible custody dispute. Both parents wanted custody of Jessica, but any amount of animosity or resentment the other felt was immediately gone. After Jessica went missing, Jessica loved the color purple, which was made apparent by the purple framed prescription glasses she wore every day. Jessica would never get to meet her little sister, who was named after her. Never begin middle school. Never learned to drive, never attend prom, never graduate. The list goes on and on. But not because Jessica was unsafe. Before her death, she had been practicing writing declarative and exclamatory sentences at school. Do not play in the park alone. Watch out for strangers. On the day Jessica disappeared, she had called a friend neighbor to walk to school together. Her parents taught her not to talk to strangers, and there is safety in numbers. But the 17 year old who ended Jessica's life didn't give her her chance to utilize the safety she had been taught. Instead, he sat in the back of his gold jeep grand Cherokee, waiting for his preferred victim to happen by. He had already had a test run. He knew he needed to be cautious of who he had overpowered. He picked the cute little blonde girl because she was little and unassuming. Amanda: Jessica lived in a town called Westminster. It's located between Broomfield and Arvada. The city limits fall within two counties, Adams and Jefferson. According to a population estimate from 2012, the same year that Jessica was killed, approximately 109,000 people called Westminster home. In fact, I called Westminster home until I was about seven years old. It has tons of parks and open space, and ultimately it's a very community focused area with desirable schools, and it's a great place to raise a family. On October 5, 2012, after a relatively early snowfall for Colorado, Jessica Ridgway was preparing to start her school day. She spent the morning with her mom, Sarah, eating breakfast and talking about her day. Her mom worked nights but was always home in the morning to see Jessica before she left for school. That day was no different. Jessica called a neighbor friend to ask if he would walk to school with her. He agreed, and the two made plans to meet at a nearby park. Jessica left her home at 08:35 a.m. As she walked to meet her friend, she gathered up some freshly fallen snow and cupped it into a snowball, having no idea what kind of horror she was about to face. When Jessica didn't arrive by 08:40 a.m. Her friend left, assuming she had gotten a ride from her mom. All right, so let's talk about the 17 year old boy who would go on to commit such atrocious crimes. FBI profilers actually thought he was a traumatized grown man. So I do have to say that I hate this kid, and in real life, I don't hate a lot of people. The list is relatively short. Chris Watts, whoever killed John Bennett Ramsey, and Austin Sig, all three are complete pieces of ****. And I don't care which way you slice it, they're the shittiest people to have ever walked the earth. So I'm going to try to do my best to not let that get in the way of telling you the story. But I assure you, when we're done, you'll hate him, too. So Austin Sig was born on January 17, 1995. He grew up in Westminster and actually attended the same school Jessica did when he was her age. His parents, Mindy and Robert, divorced when Austin was young, but the family spent holidays and vacations together with their sons. Austin and his younger brother. Mindy worked as an ophthalmic technician in Broomfield, and Robert was a media executive who seemed to struggle to stay on the up and up with the law. Legal trouble began for Robert long before his son made national news. In 2004, he was charged with mortgage fraud. Before that, he was arrested for burglary and assault in Jefferson county, drug distribution in Weld county, domestic violence in Parker, and assault and battery in Aurora. Although the couple couldn't make their marriage work, they did what they could to raise their sons after it was discovered that Austin was suffering from a child *********** addiction. At the ripe old age of twelve, the family decided to send Austin to a faithbased therapist. Austin told therapist he wanted to end the addiction, but later told investigators that his addiction only worsened and he became interested in increasingly more violent child ***********. After his arrest, detectives found sexually explicit pictures and videos of children, as well as scenes of sexual bondage, rape, and dismembered human remains. The therapist begged Austin's parents to control the access he had to tvs and computers, as this was not an issue he could solve on his own, but was met with little to no help. Kori: A little sidebar this is not going to turn into a conversation about the ethical viewing of **** involving adults. If you like adult **** and you are 18 years of age or older, you do you. We're not judging what you do in your spare time. As far as any and all child ****, if that's your cup of tea, you are listening to the wrong podcast and you can **** right off. There is a problem with younger people viewing **** and the effects it can have on your mental health and how women can be ejectified. I mean, **** is never like, hey, it's always, hey, I need help. **** is stupid. Amanda: No. So I actually had a really scary sleepover incident that involved **** when I was way too little to actually understand what it was. But, I mean, I didn't grow up to murder people. And maybe she did. I don't know. I have no idea. That was a friendship that I ended as soon as I was safely away from her. But I digress. Just know that we're not saying that if you enjoy adult ****, you're going to be a murderer, but the whole child **** thing, find a better podcast. Kori: Well, there's different. Like, if you're a sexual ****** and you enjoy that sort of ****, you should probably get some therapy. If you like your regular mom and dad ****, you do you. But child ****, **********, we are not promoting that. Please do not think that we are. Amanda: But no, not at all. You can please stop listening. Kori: Do that. Gross. Amanda: Yeah. Kori: So Austin struggled in school. He had a very high pitched voice for a boy and was made fun of for it. So we didn't use the word bully because that word is thrown around a little too loosely anymore. And sometimes it's used to excuse terrible behavior by the bullied. He also took an interest in mortuary science classes. For those of you who are unfamiliar with mortuary sciences, it's the study of biology of the deceased and their restoration arts used to make loved ones who have passed away resemble how their families remember them from the outside. It's an OD career path. But when you look at the kind and caring people who carry the title of mortician, it's actually a very honorable position. Unless their motives don't line up like. Amanda: A weird 17 year old. Kori: Right? Friends of Austin's mom remembered finding it od that a 17 year old would have such a fascination with it. Austin didn't just want to study it, he was obsessed. His younger brother recalled a slightly creepy comment his brother made about one of his classes in which he was, quote, learning how to kill people and be able to get away with it, end quote. As if that's not unnerving enough, Austin even practiced zip tying his own mother, something he'd told his mom he needed to do from school because dead people. Amanda: So often need to be restrained. Kori: Yeah. Hello, zombie. Amanda: That just wasn't a red flag for you. And, I mean, I guess she's like, okay, yeah. If your children are asking to zip tie you, it's an automatic no. Kori: Yeah. Amanda: There's never a reason. They're going to need to learn that and practice it on their mom. If it's something they're learning how to do, they're going to learn how to do it at school. So don't let your kids zip tie you, folks. Kori: No. At the time of Austin's arrest, he was in a committed relationship with a girl who he spent at least one night a week with at her house. Like staying over? Amanda: Yeah, at 17. Kori: Okay. After the arrest of her son, Mindy confirmed that Austin would spend up to four nights away from their family home. What did he do on those three nights he was unencannitive for you. Amanda: Ask. Kori: After his arrest, Austin told investigators that he spent time hunting for a victim. Let's get into what he did when he finally found one. Amanda: On the morning of October 5, 2012, as Jessica was leaving her home, Austin grabbed her. She was less than 1000ft from her front door. She screamed, but no one heard. He zip tied that ten year old little girl and threw her into the backseat of his jeep. Jessica asked her captor if he knew her mom. She continued to ask questions. Would she see her mom again? When could she leave? Was he going to hurt her? Austin lied and told the scared little girl that everything would be okay. When she saw litter boxes at his house, she asked about his cats. She tried to connect to be a human to the boy who would eventually kill her. After she was in the vehicle, he drove her to his home and carried her upstairs to his bedroom. He asked her to change clothes as she had urinated on hers. He gave her a white t shirt and black shorts. He asked her to put her clothes in her backpack. Austin claims that he let her watch cartoons, assured her that she would see her mom again, and he even cut the zip ties from her wrists. But those are all just claims. There's no proof that Austen showed any glimmer of decency towards Jessica. For almost 6 hours after he was arrested, Austin told investigators his version of events. He was sure not to leave out any graphic information. He calmly described himself as a monster, and he continued to ply investigators with intimate details that only the killer would know. Initially, he claimed he had not sexually assaulted Jessica, but in the same interview, he also claimed that he kidnapped her because he was, quote, consumed by some sort of sexual drive, end quote. But what are the facts of the case? Austin can still tell his side of the story. Jessica's story is less forthcoming, as she's not here to tell it. What we know is Austin cut Jessica's hair. He tried to strangle her with zip ties, but he cut his hands and stopped. He then decided to end her life with his hands, strangling Jessica for up to three minutes. For three minutes, he sat there watching the fear on her face, watching her struggle for air, continuing on for three minutes. He never stopped. Think of how long three minutes actually is. Do a wall, sit for three minutes, hold a plank for three minutes. Hold your breath for three minutes. And now think of all the thoughts you could think in three minutes. Kori: When those three minutes passed, Jessica's body was twitching due to the lack of oxygen. So Austin did the only logical thing he could think of and put her face in a bathtub full of scalding hot water. Austin then took Jessica's body and began to methodically dismember it, making it a sexual experience for himself. He enjoyed every second. He didn't stop to think about the pain he caused Jessica, her family, his family. He only thought of himself and his deranged sexual desires. In the meantime, Jessica's school tried to call her mother to notify her of Jessica's absence. Sarah had recently applied for a college that kept calling her since she worked nice and needed to get some sleep. She left her phone in the other room. At 04:30 p.m. Sarah wakes up to an empty house. Jessica should have already returned home from school but was nowhere to be found. That is when Sarah discovered that the school left a message about Jessica's absence. It was then that Jessica Bridgeway was reported missing. An Amber Alert was issued around 915 on October 5, 2012. Jessica had been dead for almost 10 hours by then. Searches began overnight. Two days later, on October 7, Jessica's purple backpack, urine soaked clothing, and her glasses were discovered on a sidewalk in superior, Colorado, about 6 miles from her home. A homeowner in the neighborhood saw the backpack and posted it to their neighborhood site, writing found this this morning on the sidewalk at Andrew Drive and Alpha court. Water bottle has Jessica Ridgway name on it. Come and get it. Searches continued. Police presence near where Jessica's backpack was found intensified. Her family pleaded for her safe return and set up a Facebook site to help with tips, searches and any new information. Amanda: Around 07:30 p.m. On October 10, remains were located at Patridge Park Open space in Arvada, Colorado, about 9 miles from Jessica's home. Initially, no identification was released, but the public assumed it was Jessica. The following day, October 11, police announced that the remains were not complete. Hearts around Colorado broke on October twelveth when the partial remains were confirmed to be those of Jessica Ridgeway. Police began going door to door asking for neighbors to submit DNA samples. Sample after sample was submitted to CODIS. On October 16, 2012, more than 3000 people, clad in all purple, gathered to celebrate the life of Jessica. During the service, photos and videos of Jessica flashed on the screen and showed a montage of views. Images of Jessica wearing glasses and hugging a dog gave way to Jessica, flashing a grin after losing her front teeth. Photos of Jessica in a beautiful dress gave way to an image of Jessica hugging family member after family member in a seemingly endless stream of love. All the images were accompanied by some of Jessica's favorite songs. Kori: On October 18, police asked the public for any information regarding the attempted abduction on Memorial Day at Kentner Lake that we discussed at the beginning of this episode. Thankfully, the woman who was attacked went straight to the police and the DNA was collected. On October 19, police asked the public for help once again. This time they needed help identifying a cross that was found with Jessica's partial remains. And this is where the case catches its first break. You would like it to be DNA, right? Well, there was a mix up with the DNA and Austin's DNA was in fact sent to be tested against the DNA from the jogger and Jessica. But the DNA was not actually tested. The envelope was sent back empty, signifying no match. Because Austin Sig's DNA was not tested, his sample was lost. Oopsie. Amanda: Yeah, that's a big misstep there. Kori: Austin thought he was smart. He thought he would get away with this. But his mom's friend saw the news article asking for help identifying a cross that was attached to the case. She saw the cross and remembered her friend's son and his weird obsession with death and remembered that he had a cross necklace almost identical to the one being shown on tv. She called the tip line and reported it. On October 22, police officially announced the link between the attempted abduction and Jessica's cases together. It was confirmed that the same person who tried to kidnap the female jogger also killed and dismembered Jessica Ridgway. And then, in a turn of events that no one saw coming, Mindy Sig called Westminster Police Department and reported that her 17 year old son, Austin Sig confessed to the kidnapping, murder and dismemberment of Jessica Ridgway. That wasn't all. She went on to say that some of Jessica's remains were still in the crawl space of her home. Amanda: On Tuesday, October 23, 2012 at 07:45 p.m. Austin Sig was arrested and taken into custody at Mount View Youth Services center. He faced 15 charges related to both Jessica and the jogger attack three days prior to the start of his murder trial. Against the advice of his legal team, Austin Sig pleaded guilty to all 15 charges, including first degree murder, kidnapping, sexual assault of a child, sexual exploitation of a child, and attempted kidnapping. This was the first time he admitted to sexually assaulting Jessica. The sentencing trial began on November 18, 2013. Austin Sig was not eligible to be sentenced to the death penalty due to him being 17 at the time he murdered Jessica. The following day, November 19, Austin Sig was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years. But God willing, he will never again be a free man as he was sentenced to serve an additional 82 years. Austin Zigg is currently incarcerated the same way Christopher Watts is, in safety. It was announced that Austin would serve the remainder of his sentence in an undisclosed location for his safety and privacy. Hate him yet? His privacy, his safety. It's disgusting and it infuriates me. And I know prison is for reform. I believe people can be changed. What I don't believe is that a 17 year old who can commit these types of crimes can be changed. I'm a Christian. I'm a God fearing kind of gal. But Austin Sig is nothing shy of evil. Jefferson County District Court Chief Judge Stephen Munzinger said it best. He said, quote, evil is apparently real. It was present in our community on October 5, 2012 on that day, its name was Austin Sig. End quote. Kori: Before we leave you for the week, we want you to remember Jessica. We want you to remember that sweet little girl who loved her mom, loved her dad, and loved the color purple. The little girl who had her entire life ahead of her. Take her memory with you today and keep her family in your hearts as we continue through the holidays, as we imagine this is a difficult time for them. She is who we should remember. She is the most important person in this story. Amanda: Thank you so much for joining us today. If you haven't already, please subscribe so you can be notified every time we upload. If you enjoy listening to us every week, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts. New episodes are released every Friday at 10:30 a.m. Mountain Standard Time. Please follow us on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube at coloradocrimepod for information on next week's episode, as well as other true crime happenings. We hope you have a beautiful day wherever you are, and as always, stay. Kori: Safe until next time. Podcastians have the weekend you deserve