Detectives gathered plenty of circumstantial evidence in the murder of “The Girl on Church Hill.” But none of it pointed to a suspect.
It wasn’t until Francis Ritterson identified the victim as his daughter Shaun Eileen Ritterson, that detectives started trying to locate suspects in earnest.
They interviewed the victim’s father, mother, and uncle. They interviewed the victim’s friends.
Troubled Teen
The consensus described the victim as a troubled teen who:
- Drank to excess.
- Used drugs regularly.
- Was promiscuous.
- Left home often.
- Disappeared for days to weeks at a time.
- Ran into trouble with the law.
Shaun’s roommate said they went to the Capri Club in Bristol Township on the night Shaun was last seen alive. They drank, used drugs, and danced. A young man expressed interest in Shaun, and Shaun left the club with the stranger.
The roommate described the stranger to a police sketch-artist. He became the first suspect.
But when efforts to locate the stranger failed, someone else quickly became the prime suspect: Harry Ritterson. Shaun’s 40-year-old uncle. According to Shaun’s friends, a strong bond existed between Shaun and Uncle Harry. Because he:
Let her cry on his shoulder.- Posted bail whenever she was arrested.
- Gave rides whenever she needed to go somewhere.
- Stopped by her apartment often.
- Made sexual advances repeatedly.
Two other circumstances made him stand out:
- He regularly visited Church Hill near where the body was found.
- A hunter, he was skilled at gutting a deer.
Thru the years – Harry Ritterson denied any knowledge of the killing. Detectives gathered plenty of evidence over the years, but none of it implicated Uncle Harry.
Add in no eye-witness to point to Uncle Harry, and the murder of the girl on Church Hill remained unsolved for 35 years.
DNA
In 2012, the Bucks County district attorney decided to revisit the case.
When investigators interviewed Uncle Harry this time, his statements differed from his original statements back in 1997. When pressed, he pointed to his age – then age 75 – and said the passage of 35 years played tricks on his memory.
By then, DNA testing came into use. They asked Uncle Harry if he would submit to DNA testing. They were going to try to match his hair with hair found on Shaun’s bedsheets – hairs that didn’t belong to Shaun.
Uncle Harry agreed – but soon changed his mind.
Two years later, in 2014, Harry Ritterson fell victim to cancer.
Prior to the funeral, investigators took hair samples from his corpse. They tried to match his hair with the unidentified sample.
But the DNA did not match.
Did He or Didn’t He?
Did Harry Ritterson – Uncle Harry – murder his niece?
We’ll never know. But, in my opinion, he wasn’t the killer.
(I’ll state the reasons for my opinion in Part V.)
In addition to being the official Eagles Outsider for BlameMyFather.com – Barry Bowe is also the author of:
- Born to Be Wild
- 1964 – The Year the Phillies Blew the Pennant
- 12 Best Eagles QBs
- Birth of the Birds
- Soon-to-be-published sexy, police procedural Caribbean Queen
- Soon-to-be-published novel Stosh Wadzinski
- Soon-to-be-published novel Polish Widow
- Work-in-Progress A Fuckin All-American
Where the hell is part V?