http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/04/tricia_reitler_disappearance_d.html
Tricia Reitler disappearance draws fresh interest from Indiana investigators; inmate questionedBy Damon Sims April 26, 2009, 7:00AM
OLMSTED FALLS -- Authorities last week questioned a serial-killer suspect in the disappearance of Tricia Reitler, the Olmsted Falls student kidnapped 16 years ago near her dorm at Indiana Wesleyan University.
Investigators from Indianapolis met several hours with Larry Hall at a federal psychiatric prison in North Carolina, where Hall is serving a life sentence for the unrelated kidnapping of a teenager, said Tricia's parents and Indiana police.
"I'm not interested in punishment or retribution," Tricia's mother, Donna, said. "I just want to find out where my daughter is and bring her home. Sixteen years later, we're still sitting by the phone waiting for information. This constant up-and-down is painful. We've never been able to grieve."
Hall, 46, a former janitor, has never been charged in Tricia's disappearance, but he has said three times in the past that he kidnapped her, authorities and Tricia's parents said. Hall never said where he left her body.
Tricia's parents, Garry and Donna, said police told them detectives met with Hall for five hours Tuesday and for most of the day Wednesday. The Reitlers declined to say what Hall told detectives.
In the past few months, Indianapolis police, seeking to solve cold murder cases involving young women, have focused on Hall. Tricia's case gained national attention last August, when Playboy magazine reported how Hall told a jailhouse snitch about her death.
Tricia, 19, was attending Indiana Wesleyan in the north-central Indiana city of Marion, studying psychology. She was writing a term paper on March 29, 1993, when she took a break about 8:30 p.m. to walk to a store a half-mile away for a can of Faygo root beer and a Family Circle magazine.
She was abducted on the way back to her dorm. Her jeans and a top were found in a nearby field.
The following March, Hall was stopped in Gas City, Ind., four or five miles from the Indiana Wesleyan campus, and accused of stalking women. Inside his van, officers found rope, a mask and other items used in a "kidnapping kit."
They also found several newspaper articles about Tricia and a sheet of Indiana Wesleyan letterhead with Tricia's name printed on it, the Reitlers said police have told them.
At that time, the couple said, Hall admitted killing Tricia. He told officers from Gas City, the Grant County Sheriff's Department and Marion police that he would show them where he buried her. He led them to an area, but he said he became confused, and nothing was found. Hall was released, and authorities believed him to be a "wannabe" serial killer.
In November 1994, Hall was charged with kidnapping 15-year-old Jessica Roach from her home in Illinois. Her body was found in an Indiana cornfield.
After his arrest for Jessica's murder, Hall signed a confession in which he said he kidnapped both Jessica and Tricia, Marion police Capt. Jay Kay said Friday.
Defense attorneys stressed in court records that Hall was so emotionally troubled that he sought the approval of the officers who interviewed him and had written out the statement for him. The lawyers maintained the admissions were untrue.
A jury convicted Hall of kidnapping Jessica. He was sentenced to life in prison and sent to a psychiatric prison in Springfield, Mo.
Another run at Hall
One of the prosecutors wasn't done with Hall. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence Beaumont, seeking closure for the Reitlers, devised a plan to discover what happened to Tricia.
In 1998, he contacted a convicted drug slinger from suburban Chicago named James Keene. Beaumont had prosecuted Keene on a drug case that fetched Keene 10 years in prison. Beaumont was certain Keene could mesh with Hall.
Beaumont offered Keene a deal: Get Hall to say where Tricia's body was buried, and he could walk out of prison, Beaumont told The Plain Dealer last week.
Keene took the offer and eventually befriended Hall in prison. Several months later, Keene got a confession, but again Hall would not say where Tricia's body was, according to interviews and the story in Playboy.
Beaumont is still frustrated the plan failed.
"The sole purpose of the undercover operation was to find out where Tricia Reitler's body was and to bring some closure for the family," said Beaumont, who is now in private practice.
Hall has since been moved to a Butner, N.C., prison known for its psychological services.
A question that won't go away
Garry and Donna Reitler said they did not learn of Beaumont's scheme until last year. They are impressed he tried to help.
The couple said their faith has carried them through the ordeal. In their home, pictures of their four children are placed around rooms. It is clear the parents are proud of all of them. It is also clear a huge question lingers.
On the refrigerator, amid notes and pictures, is a neon yellow flier that has dominated their lives for 16 years. On the flier is a picture of Tricia, with the word "missing" in large letters.
Sidebar to article:
Donald Grenier of Indiana was also a suspect
Larry Hall, the most recent focus of the Tricia Reitler kidnapping, is just one suspect police have interviewed since her disappearance in March 1993.
Before Hall, another Indiana man who lived in the city where Reitler went to college had gathered the most interest from police.
Donald Grenier, 54, who is serving 128 years in an Indiana prison for kidnapping and raping a 9-year-old girl in 1999, lived in Marion, Ind., and spent time near the Marsh grocery store where Tricia went to grab some pop and a magazine during a break from studying at Indiana Wesleyan University.
Garry Reitler, Tricia's father, last week said authorities told him that Grenier has refused to discuss any other cases with authorities.
-- John Caniglia and Jo Ellen Corrigan
