04-year-old Samantha Ritchie

4-year-old Samantha Ritchie

Sept. 4, 1990 - July 18, 1995

Dayton, Ohio, USA

On July 18, 1995, Therressa Jolynn Ritchie made a 911 call to report her 4-year-old daughter missing.

The report set off a massive search by many volunteers in the Dayton community where Ritchie and her daughter, Samantha Ritchie lived.

Several days later, on July 22, 1995, search dogs discovered the missing girl's body in a pool of water in a nearby foundry. Intense publicity accompanied the search,

subsequent discovery of the body, and the child's funeral.

Grief turned to public scorn when, approximately two weeks after the initial report of the missing child, Samantha's mother was first charged with involuntary manslaughter and ultimately indicted for the murder of her daughter.

In August Ritchie confessed to killing Samantha.

Subsequently, Ritchie's neighbor, Ernest Brooks pled guilty to related charges and it was publicly disclosed that Ritchie beat her 4-year-old daughter, Samantha, to death with a cast, a wrench & then stomped on her after she wandered into the room in the basement of their home where her Mom and Ernest Vernell Brooks were having sex.

Brooks said he helped dispose of the Samantha's body in the water-filled pit in the foundry. He then piled bricks, steel bars and other debris on top of her body.

As part of the plea agreement for his testimony against Ritchie, Brooks was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the murder.

The jury trial began for Therressa Ritchie on January 29, 1996 and concluded on February 14, 1996, with convictions of Ritchie for murder and additional crimes, resulting in a sentence of 22 years to life.

2010 Update

Mother convicted of killing daughter to have parole hearing today
Montgomery County prosecutor opposes parole for Ritchie, serving 22-year-to-life sentence.
June 2, 2010 - Source: Dayton Daily News

STILL MISSING
SAMANTHA'S MOM TAKEN TO HOSPITAL
July 20, 1995 - Source: Dayton Daily News

* Girl's mom, dad, uncle take lie detector tests

* 20,000 leaflets distributed

After a second day of exhaustive community searches to find 4-year-old Samantha Ritchie, an ambulance took her mother Therressa Jolynn Ritchie to Miami Valley Hospital after she became jumpy and agitated late Wednesday.

At 11:20 p.m., just hours after about 200 people gathered for a vigil at the Ritchie house at 809 E. Herman Ave., Jolynn Ritchie walked down the front steps of her neighbor's home with the aid of an emergency medical technician and went by ambulance to the hospital. A nursing supervisor said doctors were treating her.

Denton Ritchie, Samantha's father, also feels the strain.

After the candlelight service, Richie collapsed to the ground and vomited. He had not eaten or slept since his daughter was reported missing Tuesday morning from her Old North Dayton home, said his niece, Diana Williams, 24. After being helped up by his family, the father went with a group of 18 men to comb the banks of the Mad River.

There was deep determination to find the child, depicted in pictures with blond pigtails and pleading brown eyes. Her expression stares from thousands of fliers, newspapers, and TV screens and has compelled hundreds of people to help search.

Droves of volunteers from throughout the area and all walks of life have enlisted in the quest to find Samantha.

``I've got a 7-month-old baby boy at home, and it just hit my heart,'' said Jamie Ulm, 20, whose car was plastered with six posters of Samantha. ``I want to do whatever I can to help ease the pain, which I don't think anybody really could in a situation like this.''

A steady stream of cars pulled onto Herman Avenue on Wednesday as drivers picked up leaflets of the missing girl to distribute.

Some people stayed to help canvass the neighborhood. Dayton police conducted another door-to-door search, hitting every house within a quarter of a mile of the girl's home.

Similar massive searches were done in the Susan Smith case in Union, S.C., and locally in 1992, when 2-year-old Erick Nobles was reported missing.

Now Smith is standing trial, accused of drowning her sons, and Erick's mother, Tanisha Nobles, 21, was convicted last year of drowning Erick in a bathtub on Dec. 26, 1992.

But in the Ritchie case, Dayton police say they are searching for a missing girl, not investigating a crime.

``There are no suspects because we don't even know we have a crime,'' Detective Chelley Seibert said. ``We are not using the words, `suspect' or `crime' at this point.''

Still, on Wednesday morning, police re-interviewed family members and administered lie-detector tests to Samantha's mother, father and uncle. All three were released.

Jolynn Ritchie said her polygraph results were inconclusive, and she that she had done nothing wrong.

After taking her polygraph test, she ran into her home, crawled into a bed, curled up, and sobbed into a pillow. She said she agreed to the polygraph so police could find her baby. During the test, she said police asked her if she knew where her daughter was and if she had hurt the girl.

Mrs. Ritchie believes the highly publicized Susan Smith trial, which is being held this week in Union, S.C., has cast a bad light on her, causing authorities to think the pressure of being a single mother with four kids caused her to snap.

``I just want my baby girl back,'' she said between sobs. ``I jumped in their faces and told them that she's got three older brothers and why would I hurt my baby? I ain't done nothing with her.''

She and Denton Ritchie divorced last month on unfriendly terms. Family members said the couple had fought for custody of Samantha, the only child they had together.

Yet Denton Ritchie defended his ex-wife, saying, ``(Jolynn Ritchie) might not be a perfect mother, but she'd have no reason to hurt (Samantha).''

Acting on tips from psychics, authorities searched Eastwood Lake and the Mad River.

Scores of citizens continued searching and leafletting, and also began a ``pink-ribbon'' campaign, encouraging people to wear pink ribbons as a reminder of Samantha's disappearance.

Many of those volunteers attended the 9:30 p.m. candlelight vigil on Herman Avenue.

Bryan Kittner, pastor of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church where Samantha and her brother attended day camp, led the group in reciting Psalm 23 and the Lord's Prayer.

During the vigil, Denton hugged his girlfriend and wept silently. On the other side of the crowd, Mrs. Richie buried her face in her brother Scott's chest and sobbed openly. When Kittner asked the gatherers to sing Samantha's favorite song, Barney's I Love You, You Love Me, Mrs. Richie cried out, `That's my baby's song.'

Jeannie Kauffman, Samantha's aunt, said, ``The public's been fantastic. I've never seen so many different kinds of people all doing the same thing.''

With citizens' help, 20,000 fliers had been distributed by late Wednesday. The Samantha Ritchie Reward Fund has been set up and donations can be made at any Society Bank. The account number is 2392-532391-9. The reward is being offered to anyone who can provide information leading to Samantha's recovery.

SAMANTHA'S HALF BROTHERS GO TO AUNT
August 2, 1995 - Source: Dayton Daily News

The three half brothers of Samantha Ritchie were taken into custody Tuesday by the Montgomery County Children Services Board.

They were placed in ``interim temporary custody'' by a magistrate in Montgomery County Juvenile Court after a hearing. CSB spokeswoman Ann Stevens said the children will stay with an aunt, the same one they have been with since shortly after Samantha was reported missing July 18 from her home at 809 E. Herman Ave. ``It is a precautionary move until our investigation is complete,'' Stevens said. ``We don't know the circumstances under which Samantha was killed.''

She said the move was in lieu of putting Edward, 9, Timothy, 7, and Gregory, 8, into foster care. ``There's a child fatality. Any time there is a child fatality, Children Services has to investigate.''

The body of Samantha Ritchie, 4, was found July 22 in a watery pit at the abandoned GHR Foundry. Therressa Jolynn Ritchie, the children's mother, and other family members agreed that the boys should stay with the aunt while the search for Samantha was in progress, Stevens said.

CSB intake manager Dean Sparks said there will be a full hearing in about 30 days.

Also on Tuesday, a family member said she understood that Jolynn was evicted from her Herman Avenue home. Jeannie Kauffman, who is the sister of Denton Ritchie, Samantha's father, said Jolynn Ritchie was three months behind in rent. She did not know where Ritchie was living.

Mother Held in Girl's Death After 5-Day Hunt
August 6, 1995 - Source: NY Times

DAYTON, Ohio, Aug. 5— A woman who touched off a five-day search when she told the police that her 4-year-old daughter had disappeared is now accused in the child's death.

The woman, Therressa Jolynn Ritchie, 24, sobbed as she was arraigned on Friday in the death of Samantha Ritchie, whose body was found two weeks ago in a watery pit at an abandoned foundry. Ms. Ritchie had reported the girl missing on July 18.

Ms. Ritchie and a neighbor, Ernest Vernell Brooks, 43, were arrested in the case late Thursday. They were booked on charges of murder, but prosecutors decided to seek lesser charges based on the evidence.

At the arraignment, Ms. Ritchie pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter, abuse of a corpse, inducing panic and tampering with evidence. Bail was set at $1 million. Mr. Brooks entered no plea to charges of tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse.

The arrests shocked this city of 182,000 people in southwestern Ohio, where Ms. Ritchie give tearful interviews on television about her daughter's disappearance.

Ms. Ritchie and her neighbors spent five days searching for the girl. The police knocked on doors, dogs sniffed through the woods, and volunteers led by Samantha's aunt, Jeanne Kauffman, distributed leaflets with the girl's picture.

The developments this week were reminiscent of the case of Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman who blamed a carjacker for the disappearance of her two young sons and pleaded on national television for their return before confessing that she had drowned them. She was sentenced last week to life in prison.

The police declined to say how they think the girl was killed, why she was killed or where the crime occurred. Lieut. Scott Barker of the Dayton Police Department said only that Samantha died of head injuries.

Ms. Ritchie reported her daughter missing the morning of July 18. She said she had put the girl to bed late the previous night, then went to sleep at 2:30 A.M., believing that Samantha was in bed with her. When she awoke about 10 A.M., the girl was gone, she said.

Neighbors speculated that Samantha crawled out of an open window in the apartment, which had no air-conditioning.

Five days after the girl was reported missing, her body was found in six feet of water in a pit in the abandoned foundry.

TRANSCRIPT OF 911 CALL
August 12, 1995 - Source: Dayton Daily News

This is a transcript of the 911 call made about 11 a.m. July 18 from 707 Webster St. to report Samantha Ritchie missing:

Operator: Dayton police and fire.
Vicki Hammond: Yeah, is this the First District Police Department?
Operator: No, ma'am, this (is) the main headquarters. Were you reporting something? Hammond: . . . Yeah, my next-door neighbor's little girl - she's missing. And nobody can find her. We've searched the neighborhood, everybody's house, everything.
Operator: How old is she?
Hammond: She's 6.
Operator: Six years old?
Hammond: She's 5, I think.
Operator: She's 5?
Jolynn Ritchie (background): She's 4.
Hammond: Hold on.

(Jolynn Ritchie comes to the phone)
Ritchie (almost unintelligible): My brother put her to bed last night around 11 o'clock . . .
Operator: Ma'am calm down now. I can't understand you, OK? OK, your little girl is 5 years old?
Ritchie: She's 4. She'll be 5 in September.
Operator: She's 4 years old?
Ritchie: Yeah.
Operator: OK, you're at 706 Webster. Where do you live?
Ritchie: I live at - I live at 809 E. Herman.
Operator: 809 Herman?
Ritchie: Yes. Yes.
Operator: OK, is it a house or an apartment where you live?
Ritchie: Duplex.
Operator: OK.
Ritchie: It's gray.
Operator: OK. Is it a side-by-side or an upstairs-downstairs?
Ritchie: Side-by-side.
Operator: OK. And what's your name?
Ritchie: Therressa Ritchie.
Operator: What is it?
Ritchie: Therressa Ritchie.
Operator: Clarice Richey? . . .
Ritchie: And her name is Samantha Ritchie.
Operator: OK. Her name is Samantha Richey?
Ritchie: Yes. Oh God . . .
Operator: OK. How long has she been gone?
Ritchie (sobs): I don't know. My brother put her to bed last night with the rest of my kids (inaudible).
Operator: OK. So you haven't - so the last time you saw her was last night?
Ritchie: When we put her to bed.
Operator: OK. What does Samantha look like.
Ritchie: She's got short dishwater blonde hair down past her shoulders. She's got bangs and brown hair and her teeth look a little . . .
Operator: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa now. Slow down. She's got bangs and her hair is dishwater blonde?
Ritchie: Yeah.
Operator: OK. And, uh, she's a white girl?
Ritchie: Yeah.
Operator: OK. And, uh, is she fat or skinny?
Ritchie: She's real, real petite.
Operator: Petite?
Ritchie: Yeah. Real, real petite.
Operator: OK. And are her eyes blue or brown?
Ritchie: Her eyes are real dark brown.
Operator: Dark brown. OK, you don't know what she had on do you? She had on her 'jams or, or PJs or what . . .
Ritchie: I think she had on shorts.
Operator: Shorts?
Ritchie: Very, very light blue shorts.
Operator: Light blue shorts?
Ritchie: And a blue top with . . .
Operator: And a blue top. OK, ma'am where do you want to see the police? Where you are now at that lady's house or at your place?
Ritchie: My house.
Operator: At the 809 Herman?
Ritchie: Yeah . . .
Operator: OK. OK, I'll send someone to see you there. You don't . . .
Ritchie: I have to look for her.
Operator: Yeah, OK. You don't have a phone do you?
Ritchie: No, I don't?
Operator: OK. Is your last name R-I-C-H-E-Y?
Ritchie: R-I-T-C-H-I-E.
Operator. OK, I'll send somebody to see you.
Ritchie drops the phone and is heard crying in the background. Hammond comes to the line.
Hammond: Are you still there?
Operator: Yeah. I'm going to send someone to see her at her house, OK.
Hammond: All right.
Operator: Thanks, ma'am.

Couldn't anybody save this child? Dad tried
February 15, 1996 - Source: Enquirer Opinion
BY LAURA PULFER - The Cincinnati Enquirer

This is not about a murdering mother.
It's about the dad.

Back in July people in Dayton, Ohio, were looking for Samantha Ritchie, 4 years old, last seen wearing a pink nightgown. Three feet tall, about 30 pounds.

Her mother, Therressa Jolynn Ritchie, pleaded for the child's return.

Samantha's photograph was all over the newspapers and television. A baby's face. Blond pigtails. Wide mouth in a narrow smile. Almond-shaped brown eyes looking right into the camera. You probably saw the picture. If you did, you know what happened.

Searchers found the little body, pinned by scrap metal and chunks of cement, in a watery pit about a block from her home. Jolynn was convicted Wednesday of the murder.

Police said ''Sam'' stumbled upon her mother having sex with a neighbor. Having already demonstrated the morals of a mink, this neighbor testified that he stood there holding his pants while Jolynn clubbed the child to death.

A pattern of neglectAnother neighbor, a woman, shut her door in this baby's face at 1:30 in the morning. Three years ago, Montgomery County Children Services Board investigated complaints that Jolynn Ritchie's children - Samantha and three older half-brothers - were not being properly supervised.

''They checked it out and determined there was nothing there,'' said a children services spokesperson. ''We never heard anything further.''

Geez. Maybe the kids lost your phone number. Where were the neighbors? And family? The media? Where were any of us? Didn't anybody see anything that would have caused them to get involved?

And where was this child's father?

You don't hear much about him. From the beginning, he stoutly refused to be part of a circus. While some volunteers were ''scheduling interviews'' and his former wife drank with an old boyfriend named Junebug, Denton Ritchie was looking for his daughter.

He collapsed two days after she was reported missing. He had not eaten or slept. Enquirer reporter Julie Irwin heard him tell a friend that maybe when Samantha was found he could finally get custody.

You've heard about deadbeat dads? This guy wasn't one of them. He drives a garbage truck for the city of Dayton and he never missed a $313 monthly support payment for Samantha, his only child.

Already divorced twice, he married Samantha's mother in 1990, about a month before he was sent to the Persian Gulf. A sergeant in the Army Reserve, Denton Ritchie, 34, returned home to find a wife who was using crack cocaine.

He told her he wanted a divorce. And his child.

Who's guilty? Of what?Montgomery County Domestic Relations Court records show that DentonRitchie petitioned for custody on May 10, 1995. He claimed his daughter was abducted to Kentucky for two years. Jolynn Ritchie said she moved there to get her life in order.

I don't know. But I do know that about a year before Samantha's murder, her mother tangled with the law and was convicted of assault. I know she lived in unspeakable filth.

I don't know what the problem with Denton Ritchie was. Being a man, I guess. Anyway, the court awarded custody of Samantha to her mother on July 11, 1995. Seven days before she was murdered.

A small man, not much over 5 feet tall, Denton Ritchie was in court every single day of the murder trial. Except when they showed the autopsy pictures.

Tuesday, when attorneys made final arguments in a courtroom awash in leather and long greasy hair, Denton Ritchie's hair was closely cropped and his suit brown wool. Jolynn Ritchie, 25, flirted and joked with deputies before the verdict.

She saw me gaping at her and smiled pleasantly, looking like a chunky kid in detention. No makeup and a pimple northwest of her mouth. Neatly pressed pink blouse under a gray jumper. She didn't cry a single tear or flinch once. Not even when the prosecutor described Samantha's last moments.

Across the room, Denton Ritchie put his head in his hands and cried as though his heart would break.

CHILDS FATHER ALSO VICTIM
February 15, 1996 - Source: Dayton Daily News

"My name is Denton Ritchie and Im the father of Samantha."

After seven months on an "emotional roller coaster," after 2 1/2 weeks of brutal testimony that often left him shaking and red-eyed, the "other" victim in the Samantha Ritchie story spoke out Wednesday. Moments after the verdicts were pronounced against his ex-wife in the murder of their 4-year-old daughter, Denton Ritchie addressed the court. Reading from a typewritten statement, he spoke in a halting voice about anger and depression, about pain and betrayal.

Then he turned toward Therressa Jolynn Ritchie, now seated in the jury box occupied earlier by the six men and six women who found her guilty of murdering their child.

"May God have mercy on your soul," Denton Ritchie said, his voice strengthened by anger and pain. "Because I have none for you."

For Denton Ritchie, it was part of what is known as "closure."

But closure will not come that easily for the father of Samantha Ritchie. For the rest of his life, he will carry the memory of a little girl lost. For the rest of his life, he will be haunted by a surviving parents most painful and enduring thought: "If only . . . "

Ask any parent who has lost a child. No matter how incurable the disease, a parent cant avoid thinking: "If only I had taken her to a different doctor, to a different hospital." No matter how unforeseeable the accident, a parent is left with the nagging thought: "If only I had forced him to stay home that night."

There may be no reason for it. But always the thought is there to nag at you. What you should have done. What you could have done.

"If only . . . "

By all accounts, Denton Ritchie did what he legally could.

When he filed for divorce to end a stormy five-year marriage, he sought custody of his only child. But the expense of a custody battle, he discovered, was beyond his means.

"It takes a lot of work through a lawyer," he said Wednesday. "You have to prove that somebody is uncapable of raising the child."

Certainly no mother appeared less capable of raising a child than Jolynn Ritchie. Her daughter, and the three sons she had produced in a previous relationship, lived in well-documented squalor. She was, in her own lawyers words during closing arguments, "poor white trash." A "harlot." A "drunkard."

But a system entrenched in the assumption that mothers are the parents of preference probably would not have made it easy for him. As more than one fathers rights advocate has pointed out: The mother can be a hooker and a drug addict and the father can be the director of the church choir, but theres still no guarantee he will win custody.

Denton Ritchie may not be the director of the church choir. But he appears to be a decent man. A man capable of holding a steady job. A man who reached the rank of sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserve. A veteran of Desert Storm. A man who, his neighbors say, loved his daughter.

"Children are innocent," Denton Ritchie said Wednesday. "As parents, were supposed to take care of them."

The comment was directed at a mother found guilty of murdering her child. But it was a spoken by a father who always will wonder if there wasnt something he could have done to save his childs life. A father who always will be thinking, "If only . . . "

Jolynn Ritchies sentence is for 20 1/2 years.

Denton Ritchies is for a lifetime.

BROOKS, RITCHIE ON THEIR WAY TO PRISON
February 17, 1996 - Source: Dayton Daily News

At 11 a.m. Friday, Ernest Vernell Brooks, wearing a striped shirt, jeans and handcuffs, emerged from the Montgomery County Jail and denied he participated in Samantha Ritchie's death.

Then the state's star witness in one of the most publicized murder trials in Montgomery County stepped into a sheriff's van with other male prisoners bound for the Correctional Reception Center at Orient. From there, Brooks will be sent to one of the state's prisons to serve his five-year sentence.

Five minutes later, Therressa Jolynn Ritchie, wearing a blue sweat shirt and matching pants, was escorted to an identical van with a group of women headed for the Ohio Reformatory for Women at Marysville.

The woman convicted of beating her 4-year-old daughter, Samantha, to death on July 18, didn't say anything as she began serving a 20 1/2 -year-to-life sentence.

David P. Williamson, one of the court-appointed defense attorneys at Ritchie's trial, said he will continue to represent Ritchie during her appeal, a process that could take at least a year to bring to the court of appeals.

Meanwhile, a decision is still pending on whether co-counsel Michael W. Krumholtz will continue with the defense team or another attorney will be brought, Williamson said.

On Friday, Williamson and Krumholtz asked Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge John W. Kessler to consider combining two charges of tampering with evidence. If Kessler grants the motion, it would reduce Ritchie's minimum sentence by two years.

One tampering charge referred to concealing Samantha Ritchie's body in a watery pit. The other one stemmed from concealing Jolynn Ritchie's cast and several items connected to the girl's beating death that were never recovered.

Kessler said he will rule on the issue after prosecutors have a chance to respond to the motion.

REMEMBERING SAMANTHA: MEMORIAL GIVES COMFORT
July 29, 1996 - Source: Dayton Daily News

* Friends and family share grief and hope at a service for Samantha Ritchie.

Time does not heal all wounds.

When the wound is the death of a child, the best time can do is help give people a chance to learn how to live with painful memories. That was the message of Sunday's memorial marking the one-year anniversary of Samantha Ritchie's death.

About 30 friends, family and total strangers visited Samantha's grave site Sunday during an afternoon memorial service under bright skies and hot sun.

They talked about memories and trying to keep them in check. And they talked about trying to move on even though they are unable to let go.

`It is like you lose the biggest part of your life,' Samantha's father, Denton Ritchie, said. `I did my best. It just wasn't enough.'

Ritchie told the small gathering that he held Sunday's memorial to thank the volunteers who never knew his family but still spent days searching near Samantha's Herman Avenue neighborhood looking for the missing 4-year-old last summer. Samantha disappeared on July 28; she was found dead on Aug. 4, after five days of searching.

"It's been hard on each and every one of us, especially the people who didn't even know her who went out and walked,' Ritchie said.

Ritchie said the terrible events a year ago raised people's awareness of working to keep children safe.

`I hope and pray it never happens again,' he said.

Dayton police eventually found Samantha's body hidden in the abandoned GHR Foundry near her home. Samantha's mother, Therressa Jolynn Ritchie, was convicted this year of beating the little girl to death.

During the ceremony several parents held young children close. The group formed a short procession that walked to Samantha's grave at the Bear Creek Cemetery, 172 N. Union Road.

Mindi Dorfman-Wynne was one of the volunteers who searched a year ago. She was asked to go to the Herman Avenue area with a search dog she owns and ended up coordinating hundreds of volunteers. Ever since, she has stayed close to the Ritchies. `They can teach us all that endurance and strength are inside all of us,' she said.

Toward the end of Sunday's ceremony, Samantha's family stood for a moment of silence in front of her grave. The first year is behind them, but the memories are still fresh.

ATTORNEY WANTS NEW SENTENCE
May 20, 1997- Source: Dayton Daily News

An attorney on Monday demanded that Ernest Vernell Brooks get a new, shorter prison sentence after the Ohio Supreme Court refused prosecutors' appeal to retain his five-year prison term stemming from his role in the disposal of the body of 4-year-old Samantha Ritchie in 1995.

Attorney Dennis J. Adkins asked Judge John W. Kessler to schedule the new sentencing after the state's highest court rebuffed prosecutors' appeals on Wednesday. Kessler sentenced Brooks to a total of five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to three charges and testified against Therressa Jolynn Ritchie, who was sentenced to 20 1/2 -years-to-life for beating her daughter to death on July 18, 1995. Two of the charges against Brooks, tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice, are so similar that Brooks could only be sentenced on one of them, the appeals court ruled.

The tampering charge against Brooks referred to concealing Samantha Ritchie's body in a water-filled pit on the grounds of the old GHR Foundry. The obstruction charge stemmed from concealing Jolynn Ritchie's cast and other items that were never recovered.

Mother convicted of killing daughter is up for parole

May 9, 2010 - Source: Dayton Daily News

DAYTON — Therressa Jolynn Ritchie, who created one of the region’s largest media frenzies when she falsely reported her daughter missing in 1995, will have her first parole board hearing in June.

Ritchie, now 39, was convicted in 1996 of killing her 4-year-old daughter Samantha. Experts say she has an uphill battle to get parole. The board paroled only 22.7 percent of the 3,979 people considered between July 2008 and June 2009.

Montgomery County Prosecutor Mathias H. Heck Jr. said his office will oppose parole.

For four days in the summer of 1995, police and volunteers searched for the little girl while Ritchie made anguished pleas for her return. The media attention was immense, particularly for the time, when the Internet was in its infancy and the “Nancy Grace Show” was unheard of.

The Dayton Daily News ranked Samantha’s disappearance the top news story of that year.

Viewers and readers were fascinated by the story, especially the squalor in which the Ritchie family lived on Dayton’s Herman Avenue.

Fascination turned to anger when the public learned that Ritchie had been charged with beating the girl to death, then dumping the body in a water-filled pit at an abandoned factory.

That public disapproval, as well as the nature of the crime, will likely count against Ritchie as the board considers her release, said Tom Hagel, professor at the University of Dayton School of Law.

“I’d be shocked if she got out the first time,” Hagel said.

DAYTON — Her daughter’s disappearance was the region’s top news story for 1995. Her trial was said to be Montgomery County’s first trial televised gavel-to-gavel.

Now Therressa Jolynn Ritchie, who in a matter of days went from obscurity to household name before settling in as Ohio inmate number W038096, has an appearance before the parole board scheduled for today, June 2, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation.

Ritchie, 39, is serving a 22-year-to-life sentence for the July 1995 slaying of her daughter, Samantha. A jury convicted her of murder, gross abuse of a corpse, two counts of tampering with evidence and two misdemeanors: making a false alarm and inducing panic.

Ritchie did not testify during her trial, but maintained she was innocent after her conviction.

Her hearing will not be before the full 8-person board, and could have only one of the board members present. If those present recommend that she be paroled, the full board would vote on that, said Jessica Dennis, spokeswoman for the corrections department.

Both Ritchie and her attorney, if she has one, can submit information to be considered before the hearing. So can victims’ representatives or prosecutors, Dennis said. That material is all confidential, she said.

Dennis said she could not release any information about whether Ritchie currently has an attorney. Neither the Ohio Public Defender’s office nor the Montgomery County Public Defender’s office is currently representing her.

Montgomery County Prosecutor Mathias H. Heck Jr. said his office sent a letter to the board April 14 opposing her parole. Ritchie showed no signs of remorse after committing one of the worst murders in the county’s history, Heck said.

“From the very beginning, all the way through, we will be adamantly opposed to any release of Therressa Jolynn Ritchie,” Heck said.

For the most part, Ritchie has behaved in prison, Dennis said. She had no infractions for the first 10 years, then was in segregation for 15 days in 2007 after a fight. The following year, Ritchie had a minor rule infraction for disobeying a direct order, Dennis said.

“A lot of people will have several (violations),” Dennis said.

Tom Hagel, professor at the University of Dayton School of Law, said a single fight would probably not hurt Ritchie before the parole board.

“Prisons are hotbeds for conflict, for a lot of reasons,” Hagel said.

But her relatively good record would probably not balance out the public outrage and heinous nature of the crime, which will also be considered by the board, Hagel said.

On July 18, 1995, Ritchie called 911 to report her daughter missing. Friends, neighbors and volunteers searched for Samantha for days before search dogs found her body submerged in a water-filled pit at the abandoned GHR Foundry, which was at 400 Detrick St., just blocks from Ritchie’s home at 809 Herman Ave. in Dayton’s McCook Field neighborhood.

Two weeks later, Dayton police Chief Ronald Lowe Sr. announced that Ritchie had confessed to the girl’s slaying.

During the trial in early 1996, Ritchie’s boyfriend, Ernest Vernell Brooks, testified that they were having sex in the basement of Ritchie’s home when the girl interrupted them. Ritchie, who had a broken arm, struck the girl in the head with the cast, then used a wrench to cave in the back of the girl’s skull, according to trial testimony.

Brooks, who testified that he helped Ritchie hide Samantha’s body, pleaded guilty to three charges: obstructing justice, tampering with evidence and gross abuse of a corpse. He was released from prison in January 1998.

At the time, his attorney Dennis J. Adkins said he did not know where Brooks, 45, was and that he probably moved away from the Dayton area because he was “fearful for his own safety.”

The parole board will weigh other factors, such as whether Ritchie is genuinely remorseful and accepts responsibility for her offense and whether she is a danger to the public, Hagel said. Regardless, convicted murderers are rarely released following their first parole hearing, he said.

“Almost never,” Hagel said. “Especially in a case like this.”