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Oxford EAGLE
Thursday, March 3, 2005
Hartigans accuse Riddle in daughters' murder,
disappearance
Cleveland man fingered as prime suspect in family's private investigation
By Loretta Winston
STAFF WRITER
Oxford couple Adam and Alicia Hartigan announced yesterday
that, as a result of the arrest of Grant Sexton, they have lost
confidence in the Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Department's
ability to apprehend their daughter's killer. They say they do not
believe there's any possibility that Denise's former fiancé could
have harmed her, and so they have hired a team of private investigators to
bring the murderer of their daughter, Denise, to justice and
to solve the mystery of the disappearance of their younger daughter, Rita.
According to a statement released by the Hartigans' attorney
Geoffrey Frye, the prime suspect in this private investigation is
former Marine Jimmy Riddle, the 27-year-old Cleveland, Ohio, man who Yoknapatawpha
County investigators recently interviewed in connection with Denise Hartigan's murder. "The local police
have made a commendable effort in tracking down Mr. Riddle
and obtaining a statement from him," Frye told the Eagle
in an exclusive interview. "However, they let him get away.
The Hartigans believe, and I think they have struck a valid
point, that Riddle knows more than he's telling about the
disappearance of their daughter Rita and what happened to Denise."
According to the statement released by Frye and the Hartigans,
then-17-year-old Rita Hartigan left Oxford in 1997 to be with
Riddle after he impregnated her. It is their suspicion that
Riddle, when confronted with the fruit of his actions, may
have reacted with violence and then covered up by fleeing
the country and going to war.
Riddle reportedly told Yoknapatawpha detectives
that he had
never engaged in sexual activity with Rita Hartigan
and that she never came to his home in Cleveland. A source inside the
Sheriff's Department, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity,
said Riddle also alleged there may have been an inappropriate
relationship between Mr. Hartigan and one or both of his daughters.
"The desperation and convoluted facts in that young man's
testimony have angered the family, and they have drawn
attention to his motives in this case. We believe the Yoknapatawpha County
detectives did not conduct a thorough interview, so there's much
more to be determined here," said Frye. "The man presented himself as a sexual predator, and
that's reason enough to investigate further," Frye added.
The Hartigans' statement indicates that a team of
investigators are currently exploring Riddle's past, including
an unaccounted for period of time after his military service in Bosnia.
Sources close to the family's private investigation hint they may
have evidence that also connects Riddle to the recent death of
Denise Hartigan, who approached Riddle while searching for her
sister earlier this year. According to Riddle, Denise Hartigan stayed with him for several weeks in
his Cleveland apartment before returning home on December 22, 2004.
"It was no accident that Denise approached Jimmy Riddle," Frye said. "Perhaps she found the crucial piece
of evidence that linked him to her sister, and perhaps she
discovered some incriminating evidence against him that led
him to murder her. As I've said, though, this matter is
still under investigation."
Denise Hartigan's head was found in a bucket near
Taylor Creek on January 15 of this year, and several earlier
discoveries of body parts in surrounding counties have since confirmed that
Hartigan may have been murdered as
long as a month prior to the discovery of her head.
According to the Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Department, no evidence
collected thus far suggests that Riddle was Denise Hartigan's killer. "Our
investigation is taking a distinctly different turn," said Sheriff's
Public Information Officer Elizabeth Jones. "We're confident
that we'll get to the bottom of this heinous crime in the
very near future -- with or without the cooperation of Adam
and Alicia Hartigan."
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