LAKEPORT – Two new investigators have joined Lakeport Police's effort to solve a nearly seven-year-old homicide.
Lou Riccardi, a retired homicide investigator from San Mateo County, and Destry Henderson, a Lakeport Police officer recently promoted to investigator, have been assigned to the unsolved murder of Barbara LaForge.
Riccardi and Henderson are working as a team on the murder, which occurred in LaForge's downtown frame shop on Oct. 8, 2002.
She was shot four times at close range with a .22-caliber weapon, with one of the bullets piercing her heart.
A $50,000 reward is being offered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case.
In April, Police Chief Kevin Burke asked the Lakeport City Council to give him $35,000 to hire a part-time, experienced investigator to try to bring the case to a conclusion. The council unanimously approved Burke's request at its April 21 meeting, as Lake County News has reported.
With that permission in hand, Burke hired Riccardi, whose first day was June 11.
“I think we're lucky to have a chance to have our staff work side by side with Lou Riccardi on solving this case,” said Burke. “We're welcoming him as a part of our staff.”
Burke said Riccardi brings with him an “extraordinary” level of experience to the case. “We've already seen a renewed sense of importance and energy in going forward with this case.”
Riccardi said he and Henderson hit the ground running, starting off their first day on the case by beginning an in-depth reexamination of several large binders filled with the investigative reports completed to date.
Riccardi and Henderson will bring two new sets of eyes to the investigation.
They'll also bring two different perspectives. Riccardi, 59, is from the Bay Area, and Henderson, 28, is intimately familiar with Lakeport's small town environment. Henderson, who has been with the department full-time since 2005, will have an opportunity to develop his skills as an investigator by working closely with Riccardi.
“We're going to look at some things and understand them differently,” said Riccardi, adding that he thinks their different experiences complement each other.
And, he emphasized, the LaForge case is going to be worked actively in the coming year.
“We're not going to be sitting at a desk five days a week,” said Riccardi.
In fact, once they're up to speed on the case's full and complex history, they'll be spending a lot of time on the street, speaking to witnesses and searching out leads. They'll also be meeting with District Attorney's Office investigators and a prosecutor so that agency can be ready to pursue a prosecution once an arrest is made.
Formidable experience and skills
Riccardi spent 20 years with the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, beginning as a narcotics investigator in the early 1970s before moving into homicide work. His work took him from the the small, tight-knit coastal towns of Pescadero and La Honda to urban areas like Redwood City.
“I like the challenge of the homicide cases,” he said. “They put you to task.”
He also brings with him experience in solving another Lake County homicide.
In April 1981, Redwood City resident Donald Beardslee – a parolee who had served time for murdering a woman in 1969 – was involved in kidnapping Patty Geddling, 23, and 19-year-old Stacey Benjamin.
He and accomplices shot Geddling to death with a shotgun in a remote area of Pescadero, according to a San Francisco Chronicle account. Beardslee and his female roommate, Rickie Soria, then drove Benjamin to Lake County, where he cut Benjamin's throat.
Bob Morse, who worked for many years with Riccardi in the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office's homicide unit, told Lake County News that Riccardi's skills were put to good use in the case.
Morse, who drafted Riccardi into the homicide unit, said he was hitting walls in the case, so he brought in Riccardi, who helped develop leads that led to the recovery of the shotgun used in Geddling's murder.
Beardslee later led detectives to the top of the Hopland Grade, where they found Benjamin's body.
Beardslee was executed by lethal injection in January 2005.
Morse listed personality, loyalty and persistence among Riccardi's many skills. “No matter what problem I had, I'd just send him.”
From San Mateo's sheriff's office Riccardi moved to the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office, where he spent 10 years as an inspector.
He teaches a homicide class in the Robert Pressley Institute of Criminal Investigation at San Jose State University, and is past president and an executive board member for the California Robbery Investigators Association.
In 2005, he was involved in an extensive search effort to find the body of Christine Wilson, a 27-year-old woman who went missing after leaving a Placer County casino. Wilson's body was never found, but her killer, Mario Garcia, was convicted and sentenced to 59 years to life, according to press reports.
In his three decades in law enforcement, Riccardi estimated he worked on close to 100 homicide cases, solving about 90 percent of them.
“We're the victims' voice,” he said of law enforcement. “That's who we work for.”
He plans to keep a picture of LaForge up in the office – which is what he has done with all of the victims whose cases he's worked.
LaForge will present Riccardi with a new challenge. “It's a first for me,” he said, explaining he's never come in on a cold case before.
A need to be involved
How Riccardi came to Lake County, and ultimately joined the LaForge investigation, looks like a mix of hard work plus some good luck and serendipity thrown in for good measure.
Riccardi, an affable and approachable man, initially retired from San Mateo county in 2001. He and his wife moved to Lake County, where they had been visiting since the 1960s.
It was through Riccardi's wife that he came to the attention of Lakeport Police.
Earlier this year, the department began looking into the possibility of bringing on a part-time investigator, someone with homicide experience, said Lt. Brad Rasmussen. They also wanted to find someone living locally.
In March, they started talking to Riccardi, Rasmussen said.
Riccardi said Rasmussen filled him in on the details of the case. “The challenge was there,” said Riccardi.
Now a member of the Lake County community, Riccardi said he wanted to work on the case. “It was important to me that I be involved.”
Burke said of Riccardi, “His passion is the same as ours. He wants to solve this case. He wants to put a murderer, or murderers, in jail.”
The department moved quickly to get Riccardi on the case. The day after the council approved the hire, Riccardi's background process started. Rasmussen said it was completed May 26, and Burke made Riccardi a conditional employment offer.
Because he retired more than three years ago, Riccardi must complete a three-week Police Officer Standards and Training (POST) recertification program, which will reestablish his full police powers and allow him to write search warrants and make arrests.
Working in new directions
Riccardi emphasized that he's part of a larger department effort to see LaForge's case come to a conclusion.
Looking through the case files, he said they're thorough “and really well put together.”
He's aware of criticism the department has weathered about its handling of the case.
Riccardi said the department's officers and investigators have put forward their best efforts. A lot of hard work – and “righteous work” – has been done so far, including hundreds of hours of interviews, he said.
Time can work for and against an investigator in a cold case, Riccardi said, explaining that witnesses may no longer be available, recollections fade and crime scenes change. There can be frustrations and lots of obstacles as investigators work through what Riccardi called “muddy waters.”
However, in the case of the gallery, it still closely resembles the way it looked that October morning in 2002. It's still so important that the first thing Riccardi and Henderson did on their first day on the case was pay a visit to the gallery.
Riccardi and Henderson have their own plans for the case.
“We're going to take a different direction based on what's already been investigated,” said Riccardi.
In his nearly four years in the department, Henderson hasn't worked the case. “It's all new to me, just like Lou,” he said.
That's why they're starting at the beginning, reviewing the voluminous case files and preparing to follow the leads that come in.
Riccardi said there are many things people don't understand about homicide investigations, particularly the time that goes into them, and the complexity of investigations.
One lead can lead to five more, and from there to as many as 100, said Riccardi, explaining how one person's account can point to other potential witnesses and information sources.
All of those people need to be interviewed – some of them more than once, Henderson said.
Many people believe that one interview should lead to a case resolution, but Riccardi said that's simply not the case. “This is not CSI,” he said, referring to the popular crime show. “There's a lot of footwork, a lot of phone calls.”
Seven years later, the case may have some things going for it, including the advancement in forensic science.
“The technology has changed just in the seven years since this homicide,” he said, explaining there are new testing methods for evidence such as DNA.
But the most important component to solving the case may be involving local citizens.
“The community has to be part of this,” said Riccardi.
The often-discussed idea that LaForge's killer is still in the community is a real concern, he said.
“There's somebody that knows something,” said Riccardi.
Anyone with information on the case is urged to contact Riccardi at
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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