NEWPORT — Rebecca Ritchie's parents were afraid their daughter would someday die of a drug overdose. But Bruce and Barbara Stickrod never dreamed police would come to their York Street house with the news that their 22-year-old daughter was a murder victim.

        Boone County Police Lt. Jack Banks confirmed Monday it was Ms. Ritchie's body officials pulled from the Ohio River April 11 near Petersburg in western Boone County.

        The body had become entangled in boat dock pilings.

        The site is downriver from the location where police think Richard Lambert, 23, of Petersburg, dumped the body of a young woman killed in February.

        Lt. Banks said Thursday tattoos on both legs helped identify Ms. Ritchie.

        But the Stickrods hadn't reported their daughter missing. “She was running from the law,” Mrs. Stickrod said. “We thought she left town.”

        The Stickrods didn't think their daughter could be the victim reported in the media until they heard about the tattoos and eventually identified the body.

        Subhed
       Suspect held

        Mr. Lambert is being held in the Boone County Jail on a felony count of tampering with physical evidence and a misdemeanor count of abuse of a corpse.

        He was arrested after authorities found blood on a boat ramp and in the bed of his pickup. Parents tried
       Lt. Banks said police would not comment Monday on whether Ms. Ritchie's body was that of the woman they think was killed by Mr. Lambert.

        Monday, Mr. Stickrod, 47, washed his slightly rusted, copper-colored 1968 Oldsmobile Cutlass. “We tried to help her best we could,” Mr. Stickrod, 47, a baker at a Busken Bakery in Hyde Park, said Monday.

        Mrs. Stickrod, 48, stayed inside most of Monday.

        Her consolation: that her daughter is finally at peace after numerous arrests for prostitution and using crack cocaine.

        “She couldn't kick her demon,” Mrs. Stickrod said. “God love her heart, she tried. She's at peace with her Lord.”
        Covington native

        Rebecca Ritchie lived in Covington most of her life. Mrs. Stickrod said the family moved to Newport in 1997.

        “She was a good kid,” Mrs. Stickrod said. “She was a straight-A student from first grade to fifth.”

        But around 1992, 13-year-old Rebecca began to have problems. “She got depressed for some reason,” Mrs. Stickrod said.

        Added Mr. Stickrod: “She got around the wrong people.”

        Regardless, their daughter was in trouble.

        Mrs. Stickrod told of the medications used to treat Ms. Ritchie's bipolar disorder, a mental illness characterized by wild mood swings between mania and depression.

        “She was always thinking someone was out to get her,” Mrs. Stickrod said. “She was a little schizophrenic, but not as bad as some I've seen.”

        Mr. Stickrod mentioned the numerous arrests for drug abuse and prostitution.

        His wife of nearly 25 years talked about Rebecca being in several group homes — including WRAP-Transitions Inc., a Covington treatment facility where Mrs. Stickrod said her daughter was sent in November as part of a sentence for crack cocaine abuse.

        According to Mrs. Stickrod, Ms. Ritchie ran away from WRAP-Transitions either Feb. 18 or Feb. 19.

        Director Karen Hargett could not be reached for comment Monday evening.

        A few days later, Ms. Ritchie spent less than an hour at home — long enough to give her parents a $2,000 Marquis diamond ring a friend had given her.

        “She told me to keep it for her,” Mrs. Stickrod said. “She didn't want to hock it.”

        After Feb. 24, neither parent saw their daughter again.
       

Tests back in 5 weeks

               Lt. Banks said he did not know what relationship Ms. Ritchie and Mr. Lambert had.

        He said blood evidence should be back from the Hamilton County Coroner's Office within five weeks, and wants to talk to anyone who saw Mr. Lambert and Ms. Ritchie together the weekend of Feb. 24.

        Thursday, Lt. Banks said Ms. Ritchie died of multiple blows to the head.

        That did not comfort the Stickrods.

        “The detective just told us she laid in 17 feet of water for six long weeks,” Mrs. Stickrod said.

        The Stickrods will try to cope with their loss the best way they know — by remembering their Rebecca as a child, with laughter, and by hoping their story prevents even one child from abusing drugs.

        “When I break down,” Mrs. Stickrod said, “It's by myself.”

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