Ryan Riggs

Ryan Derek Riggs was born in approximately 1996 and lived in the North Lake community near Brownwood, Texas. Publicly available information about his childhood and education is limited.

Riggs attended North Lake Community Church and lived in the same rural community as Rhonda "Chantay" Blankinship. He was not her boyfriend. Investigators established that he was merely an acquaintance of Chantay's boyfriend, Colin, and had no close relationship with Chantay or her family before the murder.

On the evening of May 13, 2016, Chantay Blankinship left her grandfather's home for her usual evening walk around the North Lake neighbourhood. She was reported missing after failing to return home.

Riggs encountered Chantay near the community mailboxes and offered her a ride in his pickup truck. Instead of taking her home, he drove her to a secluded area overlooking Lake Brownwood where he sexually assaulted and strangled her.

Believing she might still be alive, Riggs transported Chantay to an abandoned farmhouse known locally as the "Haunted House." There, he beat her with a lawnmower blade and left her body inside a storm cellar before leaving the scene. Volunteers searching for Chantay discovered her body two days later.

Riggs selected a vulnerable victim whom he knew from the local community. Chantay had an intellectual disability, and during his confession Riggs admitted he viewed her as an "easy target."

After luring her into his truck, he sexually assaulted and strangled her before transporting her body to a remote abandoned property. He used a discarded lawnmower blade to inflict fatal blunt-force injuries and concealed her remains inside the property's storm cellar. DNA recovered during the sexual assault became the key evidence that eventually identified him.

Despite an extensive investigation, detectives were unable to identify the killer for more than eighteen months. DNA recovered from the crime scene produced no matches in national databases, and dozens of local men voluntarily provided DNA samples that eliminated them as suspects.

In 2017, investigators turned to Parabon NanoLabs' DNA phenotyping technology, which generated a facial approximation of the unknown suspect. After the composite image was released publicly, Chantay's half-brother immediately recognised the resemblance to Ryan Riggs and contacted investigators. Riggs briefly disappeared after learning police were looking for him.

On November 15, 2017, Riggs appeared at North Lake Community Church with his parents. During the evening service, he stood before the congregation and declared, "I'm a murderer. I killed Chantay Blankinship." Following the confession, his pastor contacted the Brown County Sheriff's Office, and Riggs accompanied his parents to the sheriff's office where he gave a detailed recorded confession. DNA obtained after his arrest matched the forensic evidence collected from Chantay.

Rather than proceed to trial, Riggs entered a guilty plea to capital murder in Brown County on February 15, 2019.

As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty. Riggs waived his right to appeal and accepted a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

During the sentencing hearing, Chantay's family delivered emotional victim impact statements describing the devastating effect of her murder. The court formally sentenced Riggs to spend the remainder of his life in prison.

The investigation became internationally recognised for its successful use of DNA phenotyping. Investigators generated a facial approximation of the unknown suspect using DNA recovered from the crime scene, making it one of the earliest high-profile homicide cases in the United States solved with the assistance of this technology. The image prompted crucial public tips that ultimately led investigators to Riggs.

Riggs' confession stunned the small North Lake community because both he and Chantay attended the same church. Members of the congregation had participated in searches for Chantay following her disappearance, and Riggs himself had joined community efforts while concealing his involvement in the murder. His public confession before fellow church members became one of the most unusual admissions in a modern American homicide case.

• Brown County Sheriff's Office
• Brown County District Attorney's Office
• Texas Rangers
• Texas District & County Attorneys Association
• Parabon NanoLabs
• CBS News
• Brownwood News