Police: Suspect in Jessica Ridgeway murder is 17-year-old boy
Westminster police have arrested a 17-year-old boy for investigation of the kidnapping and murder of 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway.
Austin Reed Sigg was arrested late Tuesday night after police received a tip that led them to a home near Ketner Lake Open Space, according to a news release from the Westminster Police Department.
“This morning the Ridgeway family was notified of this arrest,” Westminster Police Chief Lee Birk said. “We hope and pray this arrest gives them some measure of closure in dealing with their horrible loss and tragedy.”
The Associated Press has reported that Sigg’s mother said the boy turned himself in, but elaborated no further.
Authorities also said that charges will be filed against Sigg for the May 28 attempted abduction of an adult jogger near Ketner Lake, which authorities confirmed earlier this week was connected to Jessica’s kidnapping and murder.
Sigg will be charged with two counts of murder in the first degree and a second-degree kidnapping charge, among others. He will make his first court appearance Thursday at 10 a.m. in Jefferson County.
According to police documents, Sigg is a student at Arapahoe Community College. On March 23, he won second place in the Crime Scene Investigation division of the Health Occupation Students of America State Leadership Conference competition.
According to arrest documents, Sigg lives about a block west of Ketner Lake Open Space and about 1½ miles south of where Jessica Ridgeway was snatched from the street as she walked to school the morning of Oct. 5.
Police are blocking access to Sigg’s home. A search warrant is being served on the home, Westminster police investigator Trevor Materasso said.
Police will release additional information at a news conference at 12:05 p.m. at the Westminster Police Department.
On Monday, police confirmed between Jessica’s disappearance and the attempted abduction of an adult jogger on Memorial Day near Ketner Lake. That woman told authorities that a man attempted to cover her face with a chemical-soaked rag.
The woman said she initially jogged past the man before he grabbed her from behind, “trying to put a rag over her mouth. She said the rag had a chemical smell on it. She was able to get away and call 911 from her cellphone.”
The woman described the man as white or light-skinned and between 18 and 30 years old, with brown hair and a medium build. He was about 5 feet 8 inches tall.
Jessica disappeared after she left her Westminster home to walk to school. Her dismembered body was found 11 miles away in an Arvada open space on Oct. 9.
Read more: Police: Suspect in Jessica Ridgeway murder is 17-year-old boy – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_21844711/arrest-made-jessica-ridgeway-case#ixzz2AF6zHDJ3
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I am proud of law enforcement personnel
I hope they got the right one. This person needs to be off the street
A stoning is in store by the local community….
I’m so glad and relieved they caught him. The following was my thought about this guy yesterday, and I believe it is right:
The focus is to catch this demon. So far as I see, this guy is very familiar with this area, most likely live within 2 miles range. Chelsea Park where Jess disappeared only within 2000 ft from where the jogging woman attacked and the boy almost snatched; the King Scoopers store where the guy bought trash bag on the west of 3000 ft, and the bag may bought long before the kidnapping because the cashier couldn’t recall anything about the buyer.
If this is true, then this guy had no intention to hide himself, that means he bought at nearest convenient location. and the King Scoopers stores to plenty nearby, so this one migh be nearest to where he lives. I believe most likely he lives within West 108 Ave to the north, Simms to the west, Wadsworth Pkwy to the East, West 100 Ave, at most West 92nd to the south this area. Police should collect everybody’s DNA in this area, if someone recently moved, absent then their direct relatives DNA can point to some similarity.
Also, this guy is psycopath, he did tried boy, girl and woman, that means he’s desperate, must has some wierd bahavior. He is most likely a loner (at least not socialized person, maybe no fixed job, or he was not accountable for these crime days. He has a history of abuse animals even killed them ( most of the killer didn’t dismember victims)
And I suspect this guy might has some wounds on his body, Jess might put up a fight.I think the community in this area should organize some volunteer door to door collection of DNA samples for police. This guy is either very smart and very bold, because he openly dumped evidence ( as a protest ? ) within short distance.
Law enforcement KNEW there was a predator out there attempting to abduct women and children, and they chose to do nothing. Instead, they went on with business as usual. Harassing minorities, pulling people over for trivial traffic violations, obsessing on victimless drug crime, and violating people’s civil rights, and just being all around violent bullies. Jessica’s blood is on their hands.
… hopefully this is the lower life form we’ve been seeking, godspeed and best wishes to everyone working on this one. Condolences to the family/friends of this little girl.
The arrested person is SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD? My GOD…
A big THANK YOU to the Westminister police and the FBI. God bless you for finding this animal!!!
If this turd is 17 and a minor, why are they plastering his name and photo everywhere?
No death penalty for minors.
Congratulations and my thanks to all the police and law enforcement involved keeping our community safe. They do not get the recognition they deserve.
My sincere condolences to the family of Jessica…what a shame…a tragic heartbreaking loss.
My first thoughts exactly!
But now that the news has settled in, I begin to feel a weird sense of relief knowing that, if this is in deed the perpetrator, poor Jessica may be the first victim he killed. Think how much worse it would be to learn this perpetrator were a 60 year old who’d lived in 10 different places over the past decade(s). The horror the people of those communities would endure as they revisted any missing children cases.
Not the easiert way to find a silver lining in this tragedy, but you have to work with what you have.
I’m glad they caught this POS, but even more GLAD that they caught him before Halloween, because that would have been Candyland for him and I’m not talking about the candy!
Without too much trouble I found where this monster lived. I only see 1 person on the deed to the property. My guess is that this is a single parent who has ignored signs for quite a while, in fact this “parent” is probably either an enabler and/or the source of some of this kids issues. It is hard to imagine how much must have gone wrong in this house to create such a monster at 17.
I’m guessing they are thanking the parents, since AP is reporting that the suspect’s mother turned him in.
this is very good news, and good job by everyone contributing to the arrest. main thing is he is off the streets for safer community, let’s keep it that way for the rest of his life.
Autumn was 12 and her suspects are 15 and 17.http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162- … cials-say/
The world is falling down around us.
RIP Jessica.
How is this kid far enough along in a program at Arapahoe Community College to be in a crime scene contest at 17 years of age? A genius?
I’m glad mom did her duty, unfortunately she had to know he was a sicky before this.
So he learned how to cover his tracks… just not good enough.
This is one depraved individual. At 17, he is either going to be judged mentally unstable and locked up in a mental facility, or he goes to prison (he’ll be at least 19 by the time his trial is over)… where, likely, he will be in separated confinement for his sentence or he will die a horrible death at the hands of other prisoners.
“The Associated Press has reported that Sigg’s mother said the boy turned himself in, but elaborated no further.”
I’ll stand by my earlier statement that this parent is either clueless or lives in a state of denial as to the behavior of their child.
So he was either taking CSI classes to learn to cover himself or he wanted to test out what he’s learned. Holy premeditation, Batman! Or of course I could be reading too much into it. Either way, I’m glad this guy is in jail now.