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E201: Ricky Griffis
5.3k Plays2 years ago
July 4th, 2022, newly single Ricky Griffis was out on the town with a group of acquaintances. He was ready to relax and have fun. But when, by July 5th, Ricky hadn’t contacted family, “fun” was the last thing on anyone’s mind; they KNEW something was wrong. Sadly, they were right.
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Transcript
Introduction to Lake Cumberland
00:00:00
Speaker
Lake Cumberland is a reservoir in Kentucky that was originally intended for flood prevention and for the creation of hydroelectric power.
00:00:09
Speaker
However, with over 1,200 miles of shoreline, according to the Kentucky tourism site, it is, quote, one of the largest and most visited lakes in the eastern United States, end quote. And it is massive, spanning more than 65,000 acres across multiple Kentucky counties, including Clinton, Pulaski, Russell, Wayne, and Laurel counties.
Persistent Crime in the Community
00:00:33
Speaker
But beyond the beauty of the natural landscape, like so many places we cover on this show, darkness and crime infiltrate. Despite small, tight-knit communities often being places where families still visit each other after church on Sundays, still look forward to their county fairs and festivals, and still know the names of half of the town, somehow those quaint qualities that I know I value so much about my hometown aren't strong enough to keep evil out.
00:01:03
Speaker
In fact, our case this week focuses on a young man from the Lake Cumberland area in Kentucky who went missing in 2022 around Independence Day, either July 4th or July 5th. Despite his family searching for him from the moment they discovered no one had heard from him, they are still searching for many of the same answers they had over a year ago.
00:01:27
Speaker
That's why it's up to us to listen, to share, and to help them apply pressure for those answers.
Purpose of "Coffee and Cases" Podcast
00:01:34
Speaker
This is the case of Ricky Griffiths.
00:02:11
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement. So justice and closure can be brought to these families.
00:02:30
Speaker
With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week. If you've been listening to our show at all, then you know that we make it a point to cover lesser known cases, which are also often the ones with very little media coverage.
00:02:59
Speaker
The case this week is one such case, and that is why I am so grateful to Ricky's sister, Cheyenne Carney, for being willing to answer my questions. And I had several of them. She graciously took the time to have a phone conversation with me. So throughout the episode, I will be interspersing some of that conversation.
Ricky Griffiths' Disappearance
00:03:23
Speaker
Ricky Griffiths in July 2022, when he went missing, was 46 years old.
00:03:28
Speaker
and a resident of Wayne County, Kentucky, which is in southern Kentucky, right on the border with Tennessee. And if you're not from Kentucky, I feel the need to explain to you that we tend to tell people not the town where we're from,
00:03:43
Speaker
unless it's a bigger city like Lexington or Louisville, but instead to tell people what county we are from. So for those outside of Kentucky, we are going to be primarily focusing on two counties in south central Kentucky, Wayne County and Pulaski County.
00:04:02
Speaker
the recognizable towns in each Burnside and Pulaski County and Monticello and Wayne County, they're less than 20 miles between the two and only about a 20 minute drive. So the areas we'll be discussing are relatively close to one another. Due in part to that proximity from my understanding,
00:04:22
Speaker
Ricky was from Wayne County, but was extremely familiar with Pulaski County as well. As an individual, Ricky was, from everything I've learned doing research for the case, just a good person. He wasn't flashy, preferring to be in his jeans and t-shirt, but he knew how to respect others and to make them feel special. And you'll hear more about this quality when we discuss the last known actions of Ricky here in a moment.
00:04:50
Speaker
In terms of the respect, he was just a person who loved his friends and loved his family. He was always calling, for example, to check in with his sister Cheyenne, and he spoke with his parents or saw them nearly every day.
00:05:04
Speaker
In fact, in between girlfriends with whom he would often live, he would always come back to his parents' house. He would stop by to do laundry there or just pop in for a visit. While living with them, he had an open and honest relationship with them, always letting them know if he planned on coming home late or if he planned on staying out all night because he didn't want them to worry.
00:05:26
Speaker
and Cheyenne's favorite memory of her brother really illustrates the loving man Ricky was. One of my favorite memories of my brother would probably be growing, like when I was growing up, a little girl, my
00:05:47
Speaker
My brother plays football and he always had lots of friends who was so popular. He had every friend you could imagine. They always stayed at our house and my mom would have these big sleepovers and we would have like the whole football team in the living room floor with unlimited sandwiches. Mom would make these big sandwich platters and they would just lay around in the floor and on the couch and play Barbies with me and you know, put me up to doing like,
00:06:16
Speaker
doing things I shouldn't do. And that was just always really fun because that's what inspired me to
00:06:25
Speaker
you know, inspired me, you know, becoming a boy mom. Like looking back on those memories I just always said, I hope I have a little boy one day because I want to give them exactly what this is. Yeah. So that's my favorite memory is probably whenever I was really little and how like my brother just, he was crazy about me. Friends were crazy about me. And that was just a brotherhood and a bond that I just, I just love to be a part of.
00:06:52
Speaker
But like anyone, Ricky did have his struggles.
Ricky's Battle with Addiction
00:06:57
Speaker
Ricky had been involved in a near fatal car accident years prior and in healing from that accident became addicted to the pain medication.
00:07:06
Speaker
as well as to the alcohol that he turned to, to numb the pain. That addiction to painkillers soon expanded to other drugs. Ricky's mother, Alice, noted that while her son wasn't perfect, he had actively been through rehabilitation and had even been clean around two years.
00:07:27
Speaker
by the summer of 2022. In fact, his mother told Anna Medina of WTVQ, quote, he fought hard to go get out of some of his battles. He was fighting and he did. God brought him back to us a better man, end quote. It was a daily struggle, but Ricky was proving day by day that he was stronger than his addiction.
00:07:52
Speaker
That brings us to Independence Day, 2022. And Ricky was in the Burnside area of Lake Cumberland, which is in Pulaski County and has a population of fewer than a thousand people. So when I spoke of that small town atmosphere in the introduction, this town has it in droves. Ricky had been out all day on July 4th, 2022. He was freshly single. His relationship ended about a week prior and he was just ready to meet up with friends and hang out.
00:08:22
Speaker
It was one of his stops on this day though that led to me saying that Ricky was the kind of person who tried to make others feel special.
00:08:32
Speaker
You see, Ricky had stopped in to eat at the Cove Bar and Grill in Somerset, Kentucky. And while there, he had paid for the lunch of a regular customer and that customer's wife. The customer had then written Ricky a thank you note on the back of a receipt that read, quote, thank you for the thought and the deed. It was excessive, but deeply appreciated. John, thanks again for it, end quote.
00:09:00
Speaker
And while I don't know exactly what happened in between, we do also know that Ricky stopped a couple of ATMs and made a stop at a gas station with several of his friends or acquaintances. Later in
Unusual Circumstances of Ricky's Disappearance
00:09:15
Speaker
the day, Ricky's mom, Alice, texted him to see if he would be coming home that night. All he texted back was, no.
00:09:25
Speaker
What that meant, though, was that a whole 24 hours passed before his parents or anyone else began to worry about Ricky.
00:09:34
Speaker
However, when Ricky didn't return home on July 5th either and didn't show up for work the next day, his mom knew something was wrong. It was then that she called daughter Cheyenne. When Cheyenne told her mom that she also hadn't heard from Ricky, they knew immediately that they needed to file a missing persons report, which they did on the morning of July 6th.
00:09:57
Speaker
Cheyenne also began searching through her brother's accounts. They shared passwords with one another to try to find any and all information that she could. It was in that search that she noticed some off-putting messages that to her could not have come from Ricky. Some news sources say that Ricky sent the following text to his mother, but his mother has made it perfectly clear that she never received any text
00:10:26
Speaker
other than the one on July 4th letting her know that he wouldn't be coming home that night. However, another text went out from Ricky's phone on July 5th, whether or not Ricky typed it or someone else we don't know. But this text was rather bizarre that he was lost in the woods and was stuck in the mud.
00:10:49
Speaker
Ricky's car was later discovered, also on July 6, the same day the missing persons report was filed, buried in tall grass and mud near a strip mine in Coopersville, Kentucky.
00:11:03
Speaker
Coopersville is in Wayne County and about a 12-minute drive from Monticello. But being from Wayne County, this was Ricky's neck of the woods. This was land he was very familiar with. So why would he have sent a text that he was, quote, lost in the woods or, quote, stuck in the mud? None of it seemed to make much sense to his friends and family.
00:11:32
Speaker
What made even less sense to the family was that law enforcement didn't seem interested in processing the vehicle as evidence. Cheyenne noted that local law enforcement not only didn't immediately search the vehicle to gather evidence, but that they let it sit where it was found for more than 48 hours before anything was even done.
00:11:55
Speaker
According to Cheyenne, the person who discovered Ricky's car wasn't even questioned until just a few months ago. That must have been so infuriating, especially for a family just wanting answers.
00:12:12
Speaker
Other news reports, like Missy Phillips for Somerset 106, did note some search and rescue efforts by the Wayne County Sheriff's Department. She stated in her report, quote, a search of the area by the Wayne County Sheriff's Office and an extended search by the Wayne County Rescue Squad, along with family members, ended with Ricky not being located, end quote.
00:12:35
Speaker
Additionally, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources deployed drones in the area, but were also unable to find any sign of Rickey. Regardless of the effort put in the search by Wayne County law enforcement, since Rickey's sister Cheyenne is so perceptive, seeing the car did provide one big answer for her.
00:12:58
Speaker
Namely, whether Ricky was the one who drove his car to this location. Cheyenne would answer that question with a resounding no. You see, Ricky was six feet tall and would obviously have to have the driver seat pushed far enough back to accommodate his large frame. Instead, the driver seat was moved as though someone much shorter had been driving it.
00:13:22
Speaker
but it's the next observation that has Cheyenne even more convinced that Ricky's car was brought here and not driven here by her brother. She stated in an interview about the case that Ricky was a chain smoker, so much so that it was almost as though he would light a new cigarette from the final embers of the previous one. However, in the area around the car or in any path leading away from the car, there wasn't even a single cigarette butt to be found.
00:13:52
Speaker
Not one. Those two facts were only compounded when she learned that Ricky's wallet, which contained the receipt to the Cove Bar and Grill restaurant with the note on the back, and his cell phone had been left in the car as well. First, if Ricky had actually driven here, the car seat wouldn't be moved. Second, if he had driven here and truly gotten stuck, as that strange text seemed to indicate,
00:14:18
Speaker
He would have had to have used his phone to send that text, and if he could send a text, why not call? And if he started walking, why not take the cell phone with him? There is no reason I can think of for leaving it behind.
00:14:36
Speaker
And finally, if he were truly stuck here and waiting it out until someone found him or picked him up,
Search and Investigation Efforts
00:14:43
Speaker
he would have been smoking while he was waiting. So for Cheyenne, there is no evidence that her brother was actually in the area where his car was found abandoned. Here's what she said in our conversation.
00:14:57
Speaker
He was a train smoker. My brother, he was just like a construction guy. He worked on cars, smoked his cigarettes. I mean, that's just kind of who he was. And a whole pack of cigarettes were left in the car. The seat was moved, was not in the place that he would drive that car in. And the dogs, the dogs, they definitely
00:15:26
Speaker
They smelled whoever was in the vehicle. They didn't smell my brother. I just feel like that with me bringing all of that to people's attention and it just being completely disregarded because I know my brother. I know my brother probably outside of my mother and father probably better than anybody in this world knows my brother.
00:15:51
Speaker
My brother, we grew up out there. We grew up just a few miles from where the car was found. My brother grew up there over half of his life. Many of years he played and rode four wheelers and dirt bikes in the same area of where his car was. My brother could probably go out there in the pitch black at night and find his way out.
00:16:16
Speaker
And I also know like my brother, he is a handyman. He's a Mr. Fixer. There's nothing he can't fix. I've never heard the man say he's been lost before. He's always found his way. For the fact that if he was even stuck in the mud, I know for a fact he would have dug his self out with his hands before he would ask for help.
00:16:37
Speaker
Like, before he would ever admit to being stuck anywhere, he would have dug himself out. And he would never, never say he was lost, you know, none of that. So, and definitely like, whoever had his phone, those messages coming from his phone after I would say around 3, 3, 4 in the morning on July the 5th, those were not my brother.
00:17:05
Speaker
And if you go back and you do analysis of how he texts, we went back from six months' worth to see his texting style, they do not even come close to the same style of text, like the punctuation, the emojis. My brother had not sent an emoji in much to somebody, and whoever had his phone loved emojis.
00:17:35
Speaker
Oh, so there were additional texts other than the, I'm lost in the woods or I'm stuck in the mud. Yes, there were messages corresponding on Facebook with a couple of people. That was not my brother. They were staged texts. What the content of those messages were about?
00:18:00
Speaker
Um, one of the messages that was sent to, um, that was sent from my brother's phone was to another, a girl that he was supposed to go meet up with, but he never showed up. His GPS navigation system on his phone showed that he was leaving any y'all can headed towards this lady's house, but he never showed up, supposedly never showed up. And, um,
00:18:26
Speaker
Then a couple hours later after not showing up, he starts corresponding back with her and says he's still coming just when he gets out of the woods. And another message said we would have been there by now, but he lost service.
00:18:42
Speaker
And who's we? That just goes to show you that he was not alone. As to the any monster said he left alone. He did not leave alone. In February, that lady that he was texting, she passed away.
00:19:02
Speaker
Was that suspicious in any way? She actually passed away. They ruled it as an overdose. That's what they said. Maybe it was undetermined. I'd have to ask one family, but I believe they said it was an overdose and she actually was found just a couple of miles from where Ricky was lasting a lot of that.
00:19:25
Speaker
Cheyenne also alleges that her parents asked law enforcement why they didn't go immediately to search the vehicle, despite the fact that they had upwards of 50 ATVs in the area and at their disposal during the search of the area, and that the response was something to the effect of, I have a $70,000 vehicle that I am not going to get scratched up. Thankfully, another group came in who was willing to search
00:19:52
Speaker
In July of 2023, the family found some support when Tony Wade of the Cajun Coast Search and Rescue Team came to Kentucky with his canine crew in tow. When they arrived, they met with Ricky's family and searched more than 50 miles of the rugged terrain that is the Lake Cumberland area. It is filled with trees, caves, ridges, and more that make the search itself extremely difficult.
00:20:19
Speaker
Despite the difficulty of the search, more details came to light concerning what may have happened to Ricky. Wade and his team primarily focused their search in both Wayne County and Pulaski County, but he told WKYT News that
00:20:35
Speaker
He's leaning toward a likelihood that Ricky will be found in Pulaski County, though I didn't read any explanation as to why he holds that belief. Perhaps he believes, as Cheyenne does, that Ricky wasn't driving. When I asked Cheyenne about the Wayne versus Pulaski County distinction, she said the following. We have pretty good leads on both areas at this moment. Okay.
00:21:06
Speaker
We have one area of interest in Wayne County that has not been looked into that we are having to do. We are having. To figure out a way. To investigate that area.
00:21:22
Speaker
But back to the initial search, Wade's dogs did hit on a scent and traced it up to the top of the ridge. Their guess was that the purpose may have been to get cell phone signal and then traced it back down just to end at a road as if someone picked the person up. And I'm saying the person and not Ricky.
00:21:46
Speaker
because the scent the dogs followed had originated from sniffing the driver's seat. So if Ricky had been driving, then it would appear that Ricky had been picked up by someone. But given all of the other abnormalities, the dogs may have been following the scent of whomever had driven Ricky's car to this location, and that person caught a ride.
Media and Public Attention
00:22:09
Speaker
Although the dog search didn't lead to concrete answers, Wade reached out to a friend of his to help out.
00:22:16
Speaker
That friend just so happens to be the Nancy Grace. Wade told Phil Pendleton of WKYT, quote, Nancy has been a friend of mine for many years. When I called her about it last week, she jumped on it. I think in a missing person's case, the more publicity a case gets, the more helpful it is. The more leads come in, the more tips come in, end quote.
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00:26:43
Speaker
and about the position of the driver's seat and the lack of cigarette butts. But it was also in the Nancy Grace coverage that I first heard about video footage related to Ricky's case.
00:26:55
Speaker
On that podcast episode, Cheyenne told Nancy Grace that it appears her brother had made stops at at least two ATMs. When asked about footage from those ATMs, Cheyenne indicated that it was her understanding that law enforcement had pulled the security footage from the machines to verify identity, but that the family had never been allowed to view the footage.
00:27:20
Speaker
In fact, Cheyenne was extremely clear in her frustration with law enforcement. Here's what she told me about the ATM footage.
00:27:29
Speaker
It took us, we asked for on that first week and it took us a year to get a photo or to get a picture of it. And I asked him, I think it's gonna be beneficial for us to see that ATM transaction, not only for one, to see if he was alone, but to have confirmation of what he was actually wearing.
00:27:57
Speaker
And also to check his demeanor, his behavior, to see if the video would show if he looked under the influence or had just different forms of behavior outside of his regular norm. Because the behavior and stuff was a little different than the norm when he was at the Cove prior to this incident.
00:28:22
Speaker
So I wanted to see, because some of these people that he hung out with and met up with, their stories just don't add up at all.
00:28:30
Speaker
And you know, like one says he was high. One says he was drunk. The other one says he was neither. She didn't smell alcohol on his breath. He was just perfectly fine. So nobody's story is really adding up. So I guess he was under the influence of any kind. Right. You know, was maybe he wasn't. So I was really hoping that they would get that sooner to us.
00:28:54
Speaker
not able to see the images, she was able to confidently state that Ricky had also stopped at a gas station with no fewer than five friends or acquaintances.
Key Evidence and Witnesses
00:29:07
Speaker
When Nancy Grace asked how she knew that there were five people with him, Cheyenne noted that she had seen the security footage from the gas station and there were five individuals in the car with Ricky. What could those individuals know?
00:29:22
Speaker
What we know beyond those details is fairly minimal, but it's because of both the receipt in Ricky's car and the video surveillance footage that we know Ricky was seen in the following places, though there may be others that are as yet unknown. The Cove, located at 120 Stonecrest Drive, Somerset, Kentucky.
00:29:46
Speaker
Shell Gas Station, called Pitmark, locally, located at 1516 Columbia Avenue, Monticello, and the Junction, located at 65 KY 90 in Albany, Kentucky. And I will add to that list information I gained in my conversation with Cheyenne. Ricky had been supposed to drive to meet a girl, but she says that he never showed up.
00:30:14
Speaker
He did show up at the home of the person who Cheyenne calls the Antioch Monster. But I'll let Cheyenne tell you about that location, the place where Ricky was last seen alive.
00:30:30
Speaker
It was like a storage building type and it was turned into a house. I guess you've seen those. Yeah. Yes. That's what it was. That's what it was like. But it was literally like a shed. It wasn't like a garage building or anything. It was a very small, like a very efficiency type set up. OK. And that's on the property. That's where that guy and another gentleman was living.
00:31:00
Speaker
Okay. And so we do know for sure that that Ricky was there. Yes, yes, we do. For sure. Ricky, Ricky was there. He arrived there around three, three, three in the morning on July the fifth. Okay. And do we know that from like GPS on his phone or?
00:31:21
Speaker
from GPS on his phone. We know it from the guy admitting that Ricky showed up but he admitted or he said that he left alone. We know it from
00:31:35
Speaker
The GPS on his phone, the text messages, we know it from some eyewitnesses that were actually there at the trailer. Just briefly, they were briefly there. They had said that, yeah, Ricky, Ricky did come here. I did see his car here.
00:31:54
Speaker
While the family has yet to get answers as to what happened to Ricky, they were able to go to the Cove Bar and Grill to meet with the owner, manager, and server who had seen Ricky on that July 4th. To make their visit even better, not only were they able to see video footage of Ricky, but they were also able to meet John, the author of the thank you note. That was such a blessing for this family, and they were able again to feel in some small way connected to Ricky.
00:32:24
Speaker
In fact, that receipt still holds a special place. In a post on the Justice for Ricky Griffith's Facebook page, it reads, quote, I carry this receipt with me. I look at it often, mostly when I feel like there are no kind people left in this evil world. Ricky might have bought your dinner that night, but you took the time to write him this note. It might not seem like much, but it was.
00:32:49
Speaker
That moment shared with you meant so much during this time of sadness and heartache. I firmly believe Ricky left it behind for our family to always remember that there are still good people left in this world, and a little goes a long way." I firmly believe it does as well.
00:33:10
Speaker
Despite gaining more information that was previously unavailable, unfortunately, it doesn't appear as though any other podcasts or media have continued to keep the focus on Ricky's case and thus continue to apply pressure to both law enforcement and to those with information who have yet to come forward. So that's what we hope to do here on Coffee and Cases, but we can only do it with your help.
00:33:35
Speaker
Remember those words that a little goes
Theories and Suspicions
00:33:38
Speaker
a long way. Even a single share matters, especially when there are still so many questions. This is where we come to the theories as to what happened to Ricky Griffiths. In essence, there really can only be three possibilities. Number one, that Ricky left of his own accord.
00:33:57
Speaker
if we follow this line of reasoning, I'm unsure of what his motive would be to get out of town, especially since he had been in active recovery for more than two years. And also, if the intent were to leave, why even attempt to send a text that you're stuck in the mud? And why a charade with abandoning your car in a random location? So to me, this potential theory doesn't fit.
00:34:27
Speaker
Number two, Ricky was involved in some sort of accident. And what I mean by this is that if he truly did manage to get his car stuck and he struck out trying to find a road or look for help, then he may have fallen or somehow gotten incapacitated. And while I understand that accidents may happen, my issue with this theory is that it doesn't explain how he got lost in an area that he's so familiar with.
00:34:56
Speaker
If he were driving, then it doesn't explain why the seat wasn't in its normal place. And it still doesn't explain the lack of cigarette butts. And if I'm going to set off to look for help, I'd certainly take my wallet and my cell phone with me. And I would have grabbed the bottle of water left in the car since it was summertime. So for those reasons, my gut tells me this theory can be eliminated as well. And that only leaves us one option.
00:35:26
Speaker
Ricky met with foul play. Representatives from the Wayne County Sheriff's Department have said that they believe there is a strong possibility of foul play in Ricky Griffith's disappearance. However, despite the fact that they say they have conducted at least four separate polygraph tests, those tests have not yet produced the viable leads anyone close to the case hoped that they would.
00:35:48
Speaker
As recently as July 6, 2023, Wayne County Sheriff Tim Catron told reporter Eric Criswell that a sixth search warrant was obtained just that week. What, if anything, was uncovered from that search has yet to be revealed.
00:36:07
Speaker
I did read from coverage by Derek Aaron for Lake Country Radio that both Ricky's family and law enforcement believe that something may have happened to Ricky while those other individuals were in his car. And if that is true, then what happened and why are the next big questions that need to be answered?
00:36:30
Speaker
Ricky's mom told Phil Pendleton of WKYT, quote, the last text message she got from her son's phone was not characteristic of how he would communicate with her. She believes he was with the wrong crowd the last time he was seen or heard from, end quote. His sister Cheyenne seems to have a clearer idea of who she thinks is responsible.
00:36:56
Speaker
In a Facebook post from March 30th, 2023, Cheyenne wrote, quote, I will never forget hanging up the phone with that Antioch monster the day my brother went missing and looking my mother straight in the eyes and saying, that's who killed my brother and no one can tell me otherwise, end quote.
00:37:18
Speaker
She believes this person was the last to see Ricky alive and suggests in that same Facebook post that GPS location tagged the individual she's referring to in the same location as Ricky's car. Asked about a motive, Cheyenne believes that it is jealousy. But in my discussion with her, she made it clear that there are other possibilities. Now, is
00:37:48
Speaker
Because you obviously believe that the Antioch monster is responsible for your brother's death. Well, he's not the only one, so I want you to stress that in your thing. We have other interests besides Antioch monster, but he's definitely, definitely one of the main people involved. The other people who are interests, are they linked to him? So this would be a group of people responsible or are these separate leads?
00:38:19
Speaker
Well, they're all in the same circle. They do live in different counties. I do believe that they might meet up together just like occasionally or, you know, in a passing. I don't think that, I think that that night was just a night of fun for probably all of them. I don't think, yes. But a majority of the group are big time buddies.
00:38:47
Speaker
She went on to say this. I can't really sit here and say that who took the blow that killed my brother, but I know it's between two people. No matter the truth, it doesn't change the fact that what law enforcement need are the details to support what they already believe they know. Could it be information that only you hold?
00:39:14
Speaker
Ricky's mom told Anna Medina of WTVQ on the one year anniversary of Ricky's disappearance, quote, I just feel Ricky's come to me. And he said, thank you, mom. And he held on tight to me. So I've already felt his spirit laying right here. He come and held me and said, thank you, mom, because you know, mama won't never give up, end quote.
00:39:39
Speaker
But thankfully, there are others who won't give up either and who have helped to create something of a local movement.
Community Support and Fundraising
00:39:48
Speaker
There was 11-year-old Colton Adams, also from Wayne County, when he was trying to come up with a design for a car to enter in the Wayne County Fair and Horse Show demolition derby. Asked what inspired him to decorate the car as he did, Colton told Anna Medina of WTVQ, quote, Ricky's story,
00:40:08
Speaker
I've seen his mom. She's on Facebook all the time. And my mom, we figured out he used to come in our store a lot. So I said, Mom, can I dedicate the car to Ricky? The number was his basketball and football number." And when the car took home the trophy for best looking car, Colton gave that trophy to Ricky's mother. Cheyenne was impressed by the advocate Colton is for finding justice in her brother's case.
00:40:36
Speaker
And I don't know what said it on that child's heart so strongly, but that child has
00:40:44
Speaker
He's been an advocate, you know, for Ricky also. He, you know, he came up with that, it was put on his heart to make a justice for Ricky Derby card. He didn't get a drive it, but he got to help his big brother paint it. And his brother, his big brother allowed him to, to do that, you know, cause his brother's the one that drove it, you know, his brother. So his brother got involved with help, you know, helping the cause as well.
00:41:12
Speaker
And Colton loves the camera and Colton is just a big ray of sunshine. He's so feisty. My brother would just love that little boy so much because he's all boy. He's boots and jeans and nipples.
00:41:31
Speaker
Colton has inspired others to do what they can to show support for the Griffiths family, who has actually seen an increase in the purchase of their Justice for Ricky shirts that they sell to raise money for rewards and for further search efforts. It was actually one of Ricky's longtime friends from high school, Robert Ellis, who approached the family with the idea of selling shirts to help raise that money for whatever the family needed.
00:41:56
Speaker
They've now sold roughly 500 shirts and have felt support from their entire community. Here's Cheyenne. You know, everybody in Wayne County wants to find Ricky. You know, everybody there. Right. I've never seen a community come together like my hometown community has in the past six months. I mean, when, when June came,
00:42:27
Speaker
I had seen people support and show love and send prayers that I didn't even realize how loved my brother was. I knew he was loved, but there were people that I hadn't seen in years. There were people that I had never met that knew him.
00:42:48
Speaker
messages stay full of people sending pictures of him and memories of him and you know and there's a lot of people that have come to me and thanked me for standing up for the community and being an advocate for my brother.
00:43:03
Speaker
As for local law enforcement, well, WKYT correspondent Phil Pendleton wrote, the Wayne County Sheriff says the search for Griffiths is an active and open investigation, and there are aspects of the case they cannot talk about for fear it would compromise it, end quote.
00:43:20
Speaker
As we know, sometimes it is a seemingly minuscule detail, snippets of a recalled conversation, piece of a memory that seems on the surface to be inconsequential that can be enough to break a case wide open. So if you have any information, no matter how small, even if you've already taken that information to police, I urge you to share it again.
00:43:47
Speaker
And if you are not personally connected to the case, you can still do your part as well by sharing this episode on your social media, by telling other people about it. Ricky's family deserve coverage, yes, but even more than that, they deserve answers. The trauma that comes with a missing loved one can be debilitating, and it has been for Ricky's parents. Every day is a struggle for her to even wake up.
00:44:17
Speaker
like every day just imagine what it's like to have your son know when your son was murdered and knowing that you're going to Walmart and you're passing by possibly walking past
00:44:36
Speaker
people who don't worry that or ones involved or relatives of the ones involved, you know, having to go through like their checkout at their place of employment.
Impact on Ricky's Family
00:44:50
Speaker
So it's really hard on her to even, you know,
00:44:55
Speaker
get out and just live a normal life again. And then when she, you know, and then there's times she goes in places and goes around in the community and people ask her like questions and stuff, sometimes she can't answer, sometimes she can, but it's like ripping a band-aid off of a wound every day to her. And it's going to be like that until we find him. Right.
00:45:21
Speaker
I want to salvage what's left of my parents because before all of this happened, they were both fairly healthy and very active grandparents, very active parents. Before all of this happened, I know we're all on borrowed time and tomorrow is not promised to nobody, but I still felt like
00:45:49
Speaker
I had enough time left with them, you know, not enough, but I had, I had time, you know, like they would get to go to, you know, milestones, graduations. Like I still felt like I had time with them, but this has completely diminished their health, mental and physical. And not only did these monsters kill my brother, they are slowly killing my parents.
00:46:14
Speaker
Thankfully, Cheyenne has had her two cousins to lean on to help continue to keep Ricky's case alive and in the public eye. And she said that when one of them needs to step back for personal reasons or mental health, the other two step forward and that they have formed an incredible team. She feels her brother helped them find that strength in each other. You know, when I lost my brother, like that was my best friend.
00:46:44
Speaker
And I almost feel like I was close, like me and my cousins was close whenever Ricky went missing. It was almost like he brought us together and formed this bond that is, I mean, absolutely unmatched, unbreakable, untouched. And it's like we all work. We have different personalities. We have different strengths.
00:47:10
Speaker
And each individual, like, won't you combine this together? It's a whole force. And we get along well. We always come to, you know, we always come to an agreement.
00:47:25
Speaker
We listen to advice, opinions on how things need to be done, how things need to be handled, steps that need to be moved forward. That's been like a lifeline for my parents that's been able to take a lot of alleviation off of them that's alleviated a lot of stress, you know, because they know that we aren't stopping. So that's been very good. It's almost like Ricky gave them to me. It's almost like he gave them to me.
00:47:53
Speaker
And the family now has a new search organization involved in the case, one that feels like it has been a godsend.
Ongoing Search Efforts and Community Involvement
00:48:01
Speaker
We also have a new search team that is currently active and working on Ricky's case. They're working every weekend. They have the tip line. They're keeping things very professional.
00:48:21
Speaker
wanting the family to be able to grieve. They're wanting the family to not have to do so much work. Right. So they are in the, you know, and they're keeping things anonymous from the family. They, because they don't want us out here putting our life in danger. They, because they're, they're following up, they're following up with everything that they're getting and they're doing things the right way.
00:48:50
Speaker
And they are not asking for donations. They aren't asking for any form of funding, nothing. They're doing it all from their own pocket and out of just the love and genuine of their heart. And they've been a blessing, a blessing beyond blessing.
00:49:13
Speaker
If you have any information concerning the disappearance of Ricky Griffiths, who was last seen in the Burnside area of Lake Cumberland and whose car was discovered in Coopersville in Wayne County, Kentucky, please call the anonymous tip line at 706-383-7229. And if you would like to do your small part to show support for the family,
00:49:39
Speaker
Consider joining their Facebook group, Justice for Ricky Griffiths, because one thing we all want is justice for Ricky. I will end our coverage with Cheyenne's words to anyone listening to this case.
00:49:56
Speaker
If anyone knows anything about the location of my brother, to please contact the tip line that is on the billboard, that is on the Justice for Ricky Facebook page. The tip line is, well, you will remain completely anonymous on the tip line. The tip line has no affiliation with law enforcement, no affiliation with the family. It is a very private line. When you call that number, you will be speaking with someone who,
00:50:26
Speaker
has no connections with the community or the family. They will keep everything private and confidential. The only thing that they are asking is for you to give them a location to where we can find Ricky.
00:50:45
Speaker
They're not asking for details as to what happened the last night of his life. They're not asking for names. They're not asking for nothing other than a location to look for his body. Once they get that information of where his body is located, they will send a search team there and they will look for his body. Once his body is recovered,
00:51:15
Speaker
They will be the ones to meet privately to give the reward. There is a $12,000 reward out and they will be the ones to give that to you privately if his body is found. It's whoever calls first with the right information that will lead them to his body.
00:51:41
Speaker
The information that we get, it will be very essential. You will need to be very
00:51:49
Speaker
very descriptive with it. You'll need to say, don't call in and say he is in a field in Coopersville that's located next to a creek because there's a hundred fields in Coopersville that's a hundred creeks. You will have to be very detailed if you want to retrieve the reward. So just be very descriptive. Don't be descriptive on who done it.
00:52:19
Speaker
And where it happened and how it happened, just let us know where we can find him. That would be the only thing that I would just ask in the community to please step forward and start asking people questions. Get people to talk. Do you know where he is? If someone tells you something,
00:52:41
Speaker
And it is just word of mouth. Contact the tip line. Every bit of information that is being called in is being looked into. There is nothing in Ricky's case that is being taken lightly or overlooked. Everything is being looked into and researched and either ruled out or added to interest.
00:53:09
Speaker
So if you hear anything, please give us that information. You can call the tip line and give them other information outside of the location, but as far as the reward money, that's where the reward money will go is the recovery of his body. And that's really all I ask is for the community and the ones who did this or the ones to know to please step forward.
00:53:37
Speaker
and give my family some peace. Give the community some peace. Ricky was a father, a brother. He was a son. He was an uncle, a very hard worker, a very genuine man. And he did not deserve this. My parents don't deserve this. They're in pain. They have no closure.
00:54:03
Speaker
They need closure. They need to be able to lay him to rest. And we just need answers.
00:54:11
Speaker
Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode. As always, follow us on Twitter, at casescoffee, on Instagram, at coffee cases podcast, or you can always email us suggestions to coffeeandcasespodcastatgmail.com. Please tell your friends about our podcast so more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon.
00:54:40
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.
00:55:08
Speaker
that was sad and somehow falls flat without Maggie here but I'll keep chugging along. It has been so exciting that this is baby week for her and who knows maybe by the time this episode comes out when
00:55:25
Speaker
Maybe by the time this episode actually airs, Baby Dameron might already be here. If not, he'll be here soon. But as much as I miss Maggie, I am so glad that she is taking time off to relax and just snuggle with her precious little one.
00:55:41
Speaker
With Maggie gone, and this now being a one woman show for a bit, I wanted to tell you now that I plan on changing a few things with Patreon as well just to make it more manageable in the interim so you will still get a full length Patreon episode each month just like you did before that won't change.
00:56:00
Speaker
And if you've signed up for the 12, 15 or $20 a month levels, then you will still be getting quarterly swag boxes. In fact, the next one that comes out in November is going to be filled with some of my favorite things. So join before September ends at one of those tiers and stay there through November if you'd like to receive one.
00:56:22
Speaker
What will change is the many episodes. So while I do plan on writing and posting those as I am able to replace those posts, instead I plan on posting our episodes ad free and fingers crossed a day early.
00:56:39
Speaker
now for some love that I am bursting to share. First of all, Maggie and I both have a huge amount of humble and gracious love to every single one of our listeners who have taken us over the 750,000 download mark. Just two years ago, we were in awe that we had gotten to 100,000. And just look at how you guys have exceeded our expectations yet again.
00:57:09
Speaker
Wow. I mean, I have no words. Other than that, we love you and we would not be here without your support. So keep listening, keep sharing, keep being your wonderful selves.
00:57:21
Speaker
I also have some love going out to Fanny Fenwick for a recent five-star written review that read, quote, just found your podcast. I am a fellow teacher in Kentucky and I even have a true crime club at my school. I can't wait to share your show with my students, end quote.
00:57:39
Speaker
Thank you so much for that review. That is awesome. I wish I had a true crime club when I was in high school. But if you would ever like for us to talk to your students, either about making a show or about a particular case, we would absolutely love to plan a Google Meet or a Zoom call with them. So just reach out and that goes to anybody. And to end, I want to give so much love to our newest Patreon member, Ashley.
00:58:06
Speaker
Welcome to the CNC fam. I am so happy that you have joined us. And with that, all of my love is going out to each and every one of you. Until next week, Sleuthhounds.
00:58:24
Speaker
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00:58:41
Speaker
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00:58:59
Speaker
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