Lambert

        BURLINGTON — The murder investigation that had a suspect before it had a victim finally produced an indictment this week.

        Richard Lambert, 22, of Petersburg was indicted by a Boone County grand jury Tuesday in the February slaying of 22-year-old Rebecca Ritchie of Covington.

CHRONOLOGY

• Feb. 26: Trail of blood is left on a Petersburg boat ramp leading into the Ohio River.    • Feb. 28: Police begin searching the river for a body after a tip leads them to the pickup owned by Richard Lambert, which also contains blood.    • March 1: Mr. Lambert is jailed, charged with tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse.    • March 4: River search is suspended.    • April 11: Woman's body is found entangled in boat-dock pilings downstream from the Petersburg boat ramp.    • April 23: Body is identified as Rebecca Ritchie of Covington.    • July 3: Mr. Lambert is indicted on a murder charge.

        Mr. Lambert had been in the Boone County Jail since March, charged with abusing a corpse and tampering with evidence. He will remain there under the original $50,000 bond, Commonwealth Attorney Linda Tally Smith said Wednesday, until he is arraigned on the murder charge next week.

        The grand jury did not indict Mr. Lambert on kidnapping, Ms. Smith said, which could spare him the death penalty. A kidnapping charge may be added, however, when lab tests come back.

        A trail of blood in Mr. Lambert's pickup and on a Petersburg boat ramp led police to suspect in early March that he had killed someone. They said they didn't know who the victim was, however, until April, when Ms. Ritchie's body was found in the Ohio River and identified.

        Ms. Ritchie, the mother of a 3-year-old boy, was a drug addict and prostitute, her parents said.

        Mr. Lambert is a used-car salesman with previous convictions for assault, public intoxication and driving while intoxicated.
       

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