By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON - After an agonizing six months, the family of Helen and Donald Riley learned that police have a suspect in the couple's February slaying - and that authorities believe a former Middletown man killed them shortly after he escaped from a Warren County lockup.

"I'm glad. I'm glad they got the guy. It feels good, knowing he's not out there running around in the world," George Hurst Jr.., Helen Riley's son, said Thursday night by telephone from his home in Williamstown, Ky. "This is a big relief for us. Thank God.

"But you still wonder why."

Mrs. Riley, 55, bled to death from multiple stab wounds; her 44-year-old husband was strangled. Their bodies were found in the bedroom of their Harmon Avenue home in late February. Only 20 hours later, 85-year-old Lawrence B. Sanders was found dead after being tortured a few houses away. But the trio of slayings, at first thought to be related, apparently were committed by different suspects.

Donald J. Ketterer, 53, is accused of killing Sanders. So far, no one has been charged with killing the Rileys, although police confirm they have a solid suspect.

Hamilton Police Lt. Scott Scrimizzi said he, a pair of detectives and Butler County Prosecutor Robin Piper just returned Thursday evening from a Florida jail where detectives talked to a prisoner jailed on an auto theft charge - "and based on the interview that we have, we're convinced that we have our suspect."

As of late Thursday night, Scrimizzi said authorities had not yet decided whether to file charges against the suspect or take the case directly to a Butler County grand jury. He did not release the suspect's name, but said more information was to be released at a news conference today.

Piper said Hamilton police would have been neglectful if they hadn't investigated Ketterer as a possible suspect in the Rileys' deaths. But when that evidence didn't stack up, "The Hamilton Police Department did an amazing job with following through on their investigation. A lot of little things have come together, and information from many different sources led the Hamilton police to Florida."

E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com