As parents, you want to empower your children. You want to teach them independence, and a good way to start is letting them walk to school, without a parent or chaperone. But what happens when it all backfires, and your child never makes it to school? On October 5, 2012, 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway never made it to school.
Friday, October 5, 2012, Sarah Ridgeway returned to her home in Westminster, Colorado at 7:30am after working a graveyard shift. She watched her daughter, 10 year old Jessca leave home around 8:30am, when she left to meet friends at Chelsea Park, where they’d meet to walk to school together. Jessica never made it.
Assuming this day was just like every day, Sarah went to bed, believing her daughter was safe in the hands of the school. She was exhausted and never heard the phone ring when the school called to let her know Jessica never arrived. It wasn’t until later that night, when she awoke to messages, that the terror set in.
An Amber Alert was issued late Friday night and the Westminster Police Department immediately got to work. By Saturday morning, they had assembled over 800 volunteers to canvass the area. They had bloodhounds, helicopters, and even dive teams searching nearby Ketner Reservoir. They contacted Jessica’s father, who lived in Independence, Missouri, who had been convicted of second degree domestic assault, and was on felony criminal probation, but had no indication that he was involved in her disappearance. Her father, Jeremiah Bryant, was the first to speak publicly, telling Missouri media outlets that he was devastated to hear his daughter had gone missing.
“I don’t know what to do, you know,” said Bryant, “I just want to find my daughter. I just want her back home.”
By Sunday, shops all over Westminster had hung missing posters in the storefronts with her information. Jessica was 4’10, 80 pounds with shoulder length blonde hair, blue eyes, and was last seen wearing a black jacket with pink and purple eyeglasses. Police still had no leads – that was until a backpack was uncovered in nearby Superior, Colorado – approximately 6 miles away from Jessica’s home. There was no further signs of Jessica, but police were not about to give up.
By Monday, the search had expanded. More than 125 persons from 12 agencies searched the area between Highway 128 and Highway 93. Teams even spread so far as Eldorado Canyon in Boulder. But their search turned up nothing. A press conference held Tuesday morning, let the public know that the police no longer suspected Jessica to be a potential runaway, but rather that she had been abducted. They put out more photos and even a video of Jessica on the Westminster Police Department’s Facebook Page. Trevor Matarasso, spokesperson for the Westminster Police asked the people to pay special attention to Jessica’s facial features,
“We really want people to focus on Jessica’s facial features. Two things of note that you will see – particularly in the video – she has a gap between her two front teeth, when you see that video, it’s fairly obvious and a distinguishing characteristic. As well, she’s got a sore at the top of her nose just below where her glasses sit. That sore doesn’t heal, so it’s a good indicator if you see someone you think is Jessica those two things are good to pay particular attention to.”
Westminster Police Facebook
The area where the backpack was found, as well as Jessica’s home, became the targets of ongoing search efforts. Police were able to rule out Jessica’s family as suspects in her disappearance.
Wednesday, police focused their efforts on a tip received, claiming they had seen Jessica in Maine, in a car with Colorado license plates the previous Sunday. They also investigated the possibility that Jessica’s case was related to another, of an 11 year old girl in Cody, Wyoming, who had been kidnapped, held for several hours, and then found.
Then around 6:40pm, Wednesday October 10, Westminster Police informed the public via Twitter, that a body was discovered near the Pattridge Park Open Space in the city of Arvada, Colorado. They would not confirm whether or not the body belonged to Jessica, and in a tweet the following day, they said, “Investigators are still working to ID body found in open space. Process is complicated because the body is not intact. #jessicaridgeway”.
Westminster Police Twitter
Friday, one week after the disappearance of Jessica Ridgeway, the search officially came to an end. The body found in Pattridge Park Open Space was, in fact, Jessica.
“There is a predator at large in our community,” said Westminster Police Chief Lee Birk.
“We can not afford to jeopardize this investigation. Be mindful of the impact on Jessica’s family,” said Jim Yacone with the FBI.
“The most important thing we can do now is the investigation, the apprehension, and the prosecution of the person who did this. Bringing the person to justice. As a result, we will not be talking to you, we will not be answering questions,” said Jefferson County District Attorney, Scott Storey.
Finally, Trevor Materasso, spokesperson for the Westminster Police Department said, “We will not rest until this person is caught.”
The police continued to search, and then something struck them. In May, there had been an attempted abduction in the Ketner Lake area, which is less than a mile from Jessica’s home. Was there a link between the 2 cases?
On May 28, a 22 year old woman said she had been jogging around the lake when a man grabbed her from behind and tried to cover her mouth with a rag that smelled like it had been doused in chemicals. The woman was able to get away though, and called 911. She described the suspect as a light skinned male, 18-30 years old with brown hair and a medium build and stood at approximately 5’6-5’8. This gave police something to work with, and they asked the community for any tips or information that might help.
On October 19, police released the description of a cross, that may have been left behind at the crime scene. The cross was described as a solid piece of wood, approximately 1 ½ inches tall by 1 inch wide with a hole drilled through the upper post portion, to possibly be worn on a necklace. On one side of the cross are three vertical bars etched into the shorter horizontal section as well as a zig-zag pattern carved into the opposite side.
“Authorities are looking for someone who may carry or wear this type of cross, may have recently purchased one of these, or is known to have some association with one. Police are also looking for a local business that may sell these specific crosses. Police believe there may be a connection between the Jessica Ridgeway murder and the attempted abduction at Ketner Lake, and urge the public to specifically look for someone with a cross like this that matches the suspect’s description from Ketner Lake.” From Westminster Police Department’s Facebook Page.
The following Monday, police confirm, via Facebook, that the attempted abduction at Ketner Lake and Jessica’s case are definitively connected.
“Westminster Police have definitively made a connection between the Ketner lake incident and the Jessica Ridgeway murder. We cannot go into details about the connection to preserve the integrity of the case.”
Tuesday night, a call came in to 911:
Mindy Sigg: “Hi, um, I need you to come to my house … um, my son wants to turn himself in for the Jessica Ridgeway murder.”
Dispatcher: “And what’s going on there. Ma’am, are you there?”
Mindy Sigg: “Did you not hear me? He just confessed to killing her.”
Dispatcher: “I know. I want you to tell me what’s going on. Can you tell me exactly what he said?”
Mindy Sigg: “That he did it and gave me details and her remains are in my house.”
As police were dispatched to the Sigg home the call taker asked if she could speak to Austin and asked how he was feeling.
Austin Sigg: “I don’t exactly get why you’re asking me these questions. I murdered Jessica Ridgeway.”
Dispatcher: “Okay.”
Austin Sigg: “There is … I have proof that I did it … there is no other question. You just have to send a squad car, something down here.”
Austin Sigg also admitted to attacking a jogger at Ketner Lake. He was then asked if he had weapons.
Austin Sigg: “I have knives in my room, um, and we own a few guns, but … I’m giving myself up completely, there will be no resistance whatsoever.”
The dispatcher then is heard once again talking to Mindy Sigg.
Dispatcher: “Is Austin still there with you?”
Mindy Sigg: “Yeah, I’m hugging him (crying).”
Dispatcher: “Okay, you guys are hugging? … Okay, you definitely did the right thing. You tell me when the officers get there, they’re coming to your front door, okay?
When officers arrived, they took his confession.
Austin sat waiting in the back seat of his Jeep. He found Jessica while she was walking to school, less than a thousand feet from her front door. As she passed, he lunged from the car and grabbed her, pulling her into the back seat and binding her hands and feet with zip ties.
Jessica asked him who he was, and if he knew her mom. Austin said, “She kept asking me questions. I would answer them and I would lie to her. I would tell her that everything was going to be OK. I would just lie to her.”
He took her back to his home, and carried her up to his bedroom. She saw cat boxes along the way and asked about the cats, and then asked what he was going to do to her. He cut the zip ties off her wrists and ankles and instructed her to change out of her urine-soaked clothes and stuff her belongings into her backpack. He gave her a white t-shirt and black shorts from his closet. He cut off some of her hair.
He sexually assaulted her, leaving her with awful bruises. He then instructed her to turn away from him, and that’s when he strangled her. He tried first with zip ties, but found he didn’t have ‘enough leverage’ so he had to use his hands instead. When he tried that for three minutes and she was still twitching, he filled a bathtub with scalding hot water and forced her face into it. He carefully dismembered her body, and initially hid her remains in a pool shed behind his house. He later disposed of some of her organs, but left her vagina, placing a cross in it. He disposed of her remaining pieces in the Pattridge Park Open space, but kept a few pieces for himself, including her skull, in the crawlspace under his house.
Jessica was dead before her mom even had the chance to call 911.
By Wednesday morning, police had arrested 17 year old Austin Reed Sigg, who lived about a mile from Jessica’s home. In a statement, police said, “Late Tuesday evening, police received a call that led them to a home near the Ketner Lake Open Space. With this discovery, police (announced) they made an arrest in the Ridgeway murder investigation. Additionally, authorities will file charges against the attacker in the May 28, 2012 attempted abduction at Ketner Lake.”
One year later, on October 1, 2013, Austin Reed Sigg plead guilty to all charges, in Jessica’s case and the attempted kidnapping case.
An investigator testified that Austin had used a homemade chloroform recipe he found on the internet to try to subdue a woman. Additional testimony revealed that Austin had child pornography on his laptop.
Austin Reed Sigg was sentenced life plus 86 years in prison, and the possibility of parole after 40 (as he was a minor when he was charged, parole was statutory, and the death penalty was not allowed.) During his sentencing, he showed absolutely no emotion.
“Evil is apparently real. It was present in our community on Oct. 5, 2012,” Jefferson County District Court Chief Judge Stephen Munsinger said, after thanking Sigg for pleading guilty and sparing Jessica Ridgeway’s family the ordeal of trial.
In a statement from Sigg, Munsinger read, “I don’t know about society because I’ve never really been that great with it, but I know that personally I am a monster. There’s no better word to describe what I’ve done than evil.”
If you found this story interesting, then check out this one regarding the disappearance of Jayme Closs.
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