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Mom of 3 Found Dead in Ditch as Authorities Investigate Suspicious Circumstances · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If a crime or even you know, a sudden medical
• 0:03
  emergency happens in a modern city today, there are just
• 0:07
  thousands of digital witnesses.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, Like everywhere you look, right.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Before the first responders even arrive on the scene, this
• 0:14
  massive net of passive surveillance has already captured the whole thing.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, You've got ring doorbell cameras on basically every other porch, exactly.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: You have traffic cameras at major intersections, recording license plates,
• 0:28
  you know, ATMs, business security feeds, and.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Cell towers right just constantly pinging the locations of everyone
• 0:34
  in like a three mile radius.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. The urban environment today is essentially this massive,
• 0:40
  continuously running system.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Log it really is.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: But I want you to think about what happens when
• 0:46
  tragedy strikes in a place where the nearest camera is
• 0:49
  maybe twenty miles.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Away, where the terrain itself is hostile to evidence, Yeah.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: And the only witnesses are the pine trees.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Well, you end up with what we call an investigative void.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: An investigative void, yeah right.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: It's a situation where the physical geography of a place
• 1:03
  dictates every single move that law enforcement and really the
• 1:05
  whole community can make.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: And we are looking at exactly that kind of void today.
• 1:10
  We really are so picture this. It's Thursday evening, July sixteenth,
• 1:14
  twenty twenty six. You are out in north central Minnesota.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Specifically in Atasca County right.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Yes, Asaska County, and it is a deeply rural landscape.
• 1:24
  We are talking about dense woods, sprawling wetlands, and these
• 1:28
  small stretches of agricultural land, just.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Roads that seem to stretch on endlessly with barely a
• 1:33
  car insight.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Exactly. So at six five nine pm, the shadows of
• 1:37
  the timber forests are stretching out across the asphalt and dark. Yeah.
• 1:41
  And along this really quiet stretch of County Road thirty nine,
• 1:44
  near a town called Deer River, a call comes into
• 1:47
  the Atasca County Sheriff's office.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: And this was a call regarding a woman found lying
• 1:51
  in a ditch right alongside the road.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And when first responders get to this rural stretch,
• 1:57
  which is just north of a community called ball Club,
• 2:00
  they discover a thirty seven year old Ricky Lorrain Skag.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: And tragically she is pronounced deceased right there at the scene,
• 2:07
  right now.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: The mission of this deep dive isn't just to read
• 2:10
  you that tragic headline. That's not what we do here, No,
• 2:13
  definitely not. Our goal is to examine the anatomy of
• 2:16
  a really complex, multi agency rural death investigation.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: We want to understand how geography, local culture, and law
• 2:24
  enforcement protocols all intersect.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and human resilience too, right, how all of that
• 2:29
  intersects in this single event.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Because equally important, we are going to honor the deeply
• 2:34
  human story at the center of this.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Ricky was a mother of three. She was a
• 2:38
  community fixture and a woman who fought fiercely for her sobriety.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: So to understand the aftermath of July sixteenth, we really
• 2:47
  have to look at both the sterile procedural reality of
• 2:50
  a rural crime scene and the vibrant life of the
• 2:53
  woman who is found there.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the contrast is huge. It is.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: We have to analyze the environmental hurdles, the specific investor
• 3:00
  give strategies they deployed, and the cultural context of the
• 3:03
  Leech Lake Band of Aujibwe.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Because they have really deep, enduring ties to this specific
• 3:08
  area of Minnesota. Right, Okay, let's unpack this because the
• 3:12
  very first hurdle investigators face out on County Road thirty nine.
• 3:16
  Isn't necessarily a lack of physical evidence, right, it's the
• 3:20
  environment itself.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the geography of isolation dictates the entire discovery and
• 3:24
  the investigation that follows.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about what a Taska County actually looks
• 3:29
  and feels like for someone who hasn't been there.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Well, it's a region totally defined by its natural landscape.
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  You have massive lakes, these really dense forests, and deep
• 3:37
  roots in the timber industry right in.
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  Speaker 1: County Road thirty nine runs right through these heavily wooded
• 3:42
  and agricultural.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Stretches, which, in practical terms, means traffic is incredibly.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Sparse, especially once you move past those afternoon commute hours.
• 3:50
  I imagine.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: Oh, for sure, the physical environment acts as a natural
• 3:53
  barrier to information and.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: Looking at the timeline from the source material, Ricky was
• 3:58
  last seen the day prior Wednesday, July fifteen, Yes.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: And she is discovered on the evening of Thursday, July sixteenth.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: So that leaves this massive, roughly twenty four hour window
• 4:09
  where she is just completely unaccounted.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: For, which is where that concept of rural geography becomes paramount.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Because in that urban environment we talked about earlier, a
• 4:18
  twenty four hour window is easily narrowed down by digital footprints.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Exactly. You check a camera, you check a phone ping,
• 4:24
  But out here you are relying almost entirely on the
• 4:29
  incredibly fragile element of human memory.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, you need.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: A passing motorist to have seen something out of the ordinary,
• 4:37
  and more importantly, you need them to remember it a
• 4:40
  day or even a week later.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Thinking about how you actually investigate a case in a
• 4:45
  landscape like that, I mean, it reminds me of trying
• 4:48
  to diagnose a total computer failure, but you don't have
• 4:52
  access to the system logs or the error codes. Yeah right,
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  You have to physically open up the machine and look
• 4:57
  at the hardware, searching for a burnt wire or loose connection.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Because the software didn't record a single thing. That's a
• 5:03
  highly accurate way to look at it.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Actually, law enforcement has to rely on the physical environment
• 5:09
  because the digital network simply doesn't exist out there.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: They are suddenly forced to literally read the physical landscape.
• 5:16
  But there is another layer to this geography of isolation.
• 5:20
  It is the psychological weight that descends on the people
• 5:22
  who actually live there. The sources mention this explicitly.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Oh the part about residents who travel these roads.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, people who drive these specific roads daily now pass
• 5:32
  this location with quote a new awareness.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: God, that's heavy. The landscape literally shifts in their minds,
• 5:38
  It really does.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: It goes from being a familiar, functional, piece of infrastructure
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  to something else entirely.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Right, just the road you take to get groceries in
• 5:47
  Deer River suddenly becomes a site of trauma.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Because in a rural community, the land is practically a
• 5:53
  character in your daily life. You know every curve, every
• 5:56
  dip in.
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  Speaker 1: The road, every stand of pine trees.
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  Speaker 2: Yet exactly on something like this happens, it completely alters
• 6:02
  the community's relationship with that space.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: I can only imagine the kind of quiet shock that
• 6:06
  brings to the surrounding towns.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's profound. People in Deer River ball Club, Grand Rapids,
• 6:12
  they are tightly connected.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Everybody knows everybody exactly.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: So a loss like this ripples outward incredibly fast. It
• 6:20
  transforms the way people perceive their own safety and their
• 6:22
  own surroundings.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: So if a local sheriff is standing on this dark,
• 6:28
  empty road, looking at a twenty four hour gap.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: And realizing a standard investigation just won't work.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Right because there are no system logs to check who
• 6:38
  do they even call?
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: Well, because the geography offers so few natural clues, the
• 6:43
  law enforcement response has to compensate by being.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Massive, massive, and highly coordinated.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Right Exactly. A single local agency just cannot process a
• 6:51
  scene like this alone. It requires a rapid influx of
• 6:54
  specialized resources.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Which brings us to the specific agencies involved. Here. It's
• 6:58
  a fascinating cross of rural law enforcement, it really is.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: The list is quite striking.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you have the Ataska County Sheriff's Office as the
• 7:06
  primary responding agency.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Obviously, right, but they are very quickly joined by the
• 7:10
  Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: The BCA, specifically their crime scene team. Yep.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Then you have the Deer River Police Department, the Leech
• 7:19
  Lake Tribal Police and this is interesting, the Minnesota Department
• 7:23
  of Natural Resources the DNR.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah. What's fascinating here is how each one of those
• 7:27
  agencies brings a highly specific, totally necessary tool to the table.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: It is all about specialized jurisdiction and environmental expertise.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Because I mean the presence of the Department of Natural
• 7:41
  Resources at a potential crime scene might seem unusual to
• 7:44
  an outsider.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: Oh for sure. Most people assume the DNR is just
• 7:47
  out there checking fishing licenses.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Right, or like managing wildlife. Yeah, so how do they
• 7:51
  fit into a death investigation?
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: Well, the DNR officers are the foremost experts in navigating
• 7:57
  and processing this specific topography of Minnesota.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, that makes sense.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: We are talking about wetlands, dense forests, peat bogs, and
• 8:05
  just really difficult rural terrain.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: So if investigators need to search a wooded area off
• 8:09
  the ditch, standard police officers aren't necessarily trained for that.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly, a standard patrol officer might not know how to
• 8:16
  track through a wetland without accidentally destroying evidence.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: Oh well yeah, I didn't even think about that.
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  Speaker 2: But the DNR knows how weather patterns, soil composition, and
• 8:26
  local wildlife interact with the scene. They understand the mechanics
• 8:30
  of the environment.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: That is incredible context. So they are essentially environmental forensic
• 8:35
  specialists in this scenario.
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  Speaker 2: Basically.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Yes.
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  Speaker 2: And then of course you have the Leech Lake Tribal.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: Police right because Ricky was an indigenous woman and these
• 8:44
  towns have deep historical connections to the Leech Lake Band
• 8:48
  of Oji Boy.
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  Speaker 2: Their involvement is absolutely crucial on multiple levels.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: First being just the sheer complexity of the jurisdiction.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Right now, it's incredibly complex. In areas heavily intertwined with
• 8:58
  tribal lands, jurisdictional boundies can resemble a checkerboard.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Right you have sovereign tribal land, county land, and state land,
• 9:05
  often overlapping or.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Bordering each other so tightly you barely know when you
• 9:09
  cross the line. Having tribal police on site immediately ensures
• 9:13
  that all legal protocols regarding sovereignty are respected.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Which prevents any legal technicalities from compromising the investigation later on.
• 9:21
  Right exactly, it's legally essential, but beyond the legal mechanics
• 9:25
  of it, there is a massive human element to their presence.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, it is fundamentally about community trust and cultural competency.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Right because when investigators need to canvass the area or
• 9:37
  interview community members in ball Club or Deer River.
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  Speaker 2: The presence of tribal law enforcement bridges a historical gap.
• 9:44
  It ensures the investigation is conducted with an understanding of
• 9:47
  the community's cultural nuances.
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  Speaker 1: Which is vital for gathering accurate information from people who
• 9:52
  might otherwise be hesitant to talk to outside.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Police exactly, and pulling all of these threads together from
• 9:59
  a purely forensic standpoint, you have the Minnesota BCA Crime.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Scene Team, right, the state level, guys.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the BCA acts as the state's advanced forensic backbone.
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  Speaker 1: Because in a rural county, the local sheriff's office might
• 10:13
  not have the budget for a state of the art
• 10:15
  mobile crime.
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  Speaker 2: Lab, right, they just don't have the resources. So the
• 10:18
  BCA brings that highly advanced crime laboratory processing directly to
• 10:22
  a rural ditch.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Wow. So they are the ones meticulously documenting the scene.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah. They preserve microscopic evidence using advanced laser scanning and
• 10:31
  chemical analysis. They ensure the forensic foundation is rock.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Solid, and their deployment basically signals that the state is
• 10:38
  treating the scene with the highest level of scrutiny.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: Exactly. They don't send the BCA for just anything.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Now, I want to zero in on how the authorities
• 10:47
  categorize this scene, because the specific language they used dictates
• 10:51
  the entire public perception of the case.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: Yes, the wording is very deliberate.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: The death was very quickly classified as quote suspicious, right, suspicious?
• 11:01
  But the authorities strictly withheld the cause and manner of death,
• 11:05
  leaving that pending the medical examiner's review.
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  Speaker 2: And they also made a point to say that no
• 11:09
  persons of interest were named.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Right, And you know, the term suspicious is heavily loaded
• 11:14
  in the public consciousness.
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: It is, but it has a very specific operational meaning
• 11:18
  for law enforcement.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Because when people hear the words suspicious on the evening news,
• 11:23
  their brains immediately translated to murder.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Oh completely, but legally and procedurally, suspicious does not inherently
• 11:30
  mean homicide.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, So what does it mean? Operationally?
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: What it means is that the circumstances of the scene,
• 11:37
  like the location, the position of the body, the context
• 11:40
  of the discovery.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Or maybe the absence of an obvious medical event.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: Exactly, it means those factors do not clearly align with
• 11:48
  a natural death or a simple accident.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, a healthy thirty seven year old woman found
• 11:53
  in a ditch along a remote county road with no
• 11:57
  vehicle nearby definitely defies simple categorization.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: It absolutely does. So calling it suspicious is basically an
• 12:05
  operational safeguard.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: An operational safeguard, okay.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Explain that it mandates that law enforcement must freeze the scene,
• 12:12
  lock everything down, and preserve all possibilities.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: So they treat it as a worst case scenario.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Yes, you treat the scene as if it were a homicide,
• 12:20
  applying the highest level of forensic scrutiny, because you can
• 12:23
  always scale an investigation back.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Right, if the medical examiner later determines it was a
• 12:27
  tragic medical event, you haven't lost anything exactly.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: But if you treat it casually at first and it
• 12:32
  turns out to be a criminal act.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: You can never go back and reconstruct a compromised crime scene.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: You're just out of luck. The evidence is gone.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: That makes total sense, and that operational safeguard leads directly
• 12:44
  into the information blackout instituted by the Taska County Sheriff's office.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: Yes, the information blackout. It's a very standard, but very
• 12:51
  frustrating tactic.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Because the public statements released are incredibly sparse. They confirm
• 12:58
  the who, the when, and the where, and then they
• 13:01
  issue an active plea for tips.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: Right, asking the public to call a specific number two
• 13:06
  one eight, three, two six three four seven seven option one.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, But they expressly state that absolutely no additional information
• 13:14
  is available for public.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Release and that deliberate silence is often agonizing for aggrieving
• 13:20
  frightened community. Oh, I'm sure, but from an investigative standpoint,
• 13:23
  it is a non negotiable necessity to protect the integrity
• 13:27
  of the case.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: See, I have to challenge the logic of this strategy
• 13:30
  just a bit. Okay, here, if law enforcement is dealing
• 13:33
  with the geography of isolation, meaning they are completely reliant
• 13:36
  on the public's memory because they have no cameras, right,
• 13:39
  doesn't withholding information actively hurt their chances any mean? Well,
• 13:42
  if people don't know what details matter, like a specific
• 13:46
  car color or a piece of clothing, how are they
• 13:48
  supposed to know if their memory is relevant.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: That is a totally valid frustration. We hear that a
• 13:53
  lot from communities. But it really comes down to the
• 13:55
  mechanics of human memory. Okay, and specifically what investigators call
• 14:00
  holdback evidence. You have to remember, memory is not a
• 14:04
  video recording that we just play.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Back in our minds, right, It's not a hard drive.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: No, it is a highly malleable, reconstructive process. If the
• 14:13
  authorities release exactly what Ricky was wearing or the specific
• 14:16
  condition of the scene, the.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Risk contaminating the witness.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: Pool exactly through the misinformation effect.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: So if a witness hears on the news that a
• 14:24
  red truck was involved, their brain might retroactively insert a
• 14:29
  red truck into their memory, even if.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: They didn't actually see one. Well meaning people will unconsciously
• 14:35
  mold their memories to fit the established public narrative.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Wow, so investigators suddenly have to waste hundreds of hours
• 14:42
  chasing down false leads generated by their own press releases.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: Yes, and furthermore, investigators desperately need hold back evidence.
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Which is what exactly just secret details.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: Basically, it's specific, non public details about the scene that
• 14:56
  only the true perpetrator, if there is one, would know.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see, Because if they eventually get a suspect
• 15:03
  in an interrogation room, they need leverage.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Exactly, they need to be able to ask a question
• 15:09
  where the suspects knowledge of an undisclosed fact proves they
• 15:12
  were at the scene.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: So if you release all the details to the public
• 15:15
  on day one, you destroy that leverage completely.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: A suspect can just claim they knew a detail because
• 15:21
  they read it on Facebook or saw it on the
• 15:23
  news man.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: So the authorities have to walk this razor thin tight
• 15:28
  rope they do.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: They have to release just enough information to jog the
• 15:31
  public's memory of Wednesday, July fifteen without giving away the
• 15:35
  keys to the entire case.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: That sounds incredibly difficult. So the official record is deliberately sterile,
• 15:40
  stripped of all color and detail for the sake of
• 15:42
  the investigation.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: Yes, but the public record of Ricky's life is the
• 15:46
  exact opposite.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: It really is. The story told by her family and
• 15:50
  her own digital footprint is deeply textured, incredibly vibrant, and
• 15:55
  profoundly human.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: We really have to move beyond the circumstances of the
• 15:58
  discovery to understand who was actually lost that day.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: I agree completely. Let's shift our focus to the woman
• 16:04
  behind the headline.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: Yes, let's talk about Ricky.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Ricky Lorraine Skag was born on September sixth, nineteen eighty eight,
• 16:11
  to Rita and Richard Skogg. She grew up in the
• 16:14
  Deer River and Grand Rapids area.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: And she completed the tenth grade at Deer River High School.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Right. And she was the youngest of eight siblings, which
• 16:23
  I mean, being the youngest of eight in a tightly
• 16:25
  knit rural family comes with a very specific set of
• 16:29
  family dynamics.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: It usually does. Yeah, Usually the youngest is the one
• 16:32
  shielded by the older siblings, the one who has cared
• 16:35
  for right.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: The baby of the family. Ye, but Ricky completely inverted
• 16:39
  that dynamic.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: She really did.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: By the time she was thirty seven, she was a
• 16:42
  mother to three daughters of her own, Ava Angel and.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: Every but her maternal capacity extended way beyond her immediate household.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: It's amazing reading about it. The sources make a point
• 16:52
  to highlight this over and over.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, her family describes an women who function as a
• 16:56
  surrogate maternal figure to numerous nieces and nephews.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: Her home was recognized as an open door, you know,
• 17:03
  a safe haven that any of them could call home
• 17:05
  if they needed it.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: She essentially became a foundational pillar holding this massive, extended
• 17:10
  family together.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: And she maintained this open door policy while working incredibly
• 17:15
  hard to support her family financially.
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: Right. The sources list her occupations as a cook, a housekeeper,
• 17:21
  and a hairstylist, And there's.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: A deeply specific cultural detail included there that I think
• 17:27
  warrants a closer look.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: The braiding.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she was known specifically for her skill with traditional braids.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: That is such a vital detail because when we look
• 17:36
  at traditional braiding within an indigenous.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Context, especially within the Nishin of Bobby or Jebwake culture. Right.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: Yes, we are talking about a practice that completely transcends
• 17:45
  a simple hairstyle. It is a profound cultural touchstone.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: It is an intensely physical manifestation of care.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: Exactly, it requires time, patience, and physical closeness. The act
• 17:57
  of braiding is historically a way of passing down to stories, a.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: Way of teaching the younger generation yes.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: And of connecting a person physically and spiritually to their heritage.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: So for Ricky to be recognized and known for this
• 18:10
  specific skill within her community, it tells us so much
• 18:14
  about how she interacted with the people around her.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: It really does. She was quite literally weaving her community together.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Spending that quiet, intimate time ensuring the younger generation felt
• 18:24
  cared for and culturally grounded.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: And that fierce caretaking instinct extended to the very end
• 18:29
  of life as well.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this part of the source material was really heavy.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: It was. Despite being the youngest of the eight siblings,
• 18:35
  Ricky took on the role of primary caregiver for her mother, Rehtta, and.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Rehtta fought a grueling battle with lung cancer and COPD.
• 18:43
  Ultimately passing away in Ricky's arms in twenty twenty two.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: We really need to pause and acknowledge the sheer, emotional
• 18:49
  and physical toll of that kind of caregiving.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely, end of life care for a patient with
• 18:54
  COPD and lung cancer is not just sitting calmly by
• 18:57
  a bedside, not at all.
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: It is managing oxygen tanks, monitoring breathing treatments, handling complex medications.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: And just you know, watching someone you love slowly lose
• 19:09
  their ability to draw breath.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: It is a relentless, exhausting reality.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: And she carried that burden while raising three daughters, keeping
• 19:18
  her home open for her nieces and nephews, and working
• 19:20
  demanding service industry jobs.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: It's just staggering when you lay it all out like that,
• 19:25
  It really is.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: You know, true crime narratives and news media have this
• 19:28
  terrible habit of reducing a victim to the worst thing
• 19:32
  that ever happened.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: To them, right, They become just the static image of
• 19:35
  a crime scene, a body and a ditch exactly.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: And I want to actively push against that framing today
• 19:41
  by centering the specific traits her family chose.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: To highlight, and the family focused heavily on her presence
• 19:46
  in a room.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: They noted that she brought laughter and smiling wherever she went,
• 19:50
  and that she had a deep love for listening to music.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: The family also explicitly stated that she was quote never
• 19:56
  afraid to.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Be herself, which is such a powerful compliment.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: It is because that kind of authenticity requires immense internal fortitude.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Especially considering everything she was dealing with.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: Right to carry the heavy, complex burdens of caregiving, to
• 20:11
  manage a large family dynamic, and still possess the courage
• 20:15
  to be unapologetically yourself, it speaks.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: To a deeply resilient character.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: It adds an incredibly profound layer.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: To her story because while she was acting as the
• 20:24
  caretaker for everyone else, she was simultaneously fighting a highly visible,
• 20:30
  deeply personal battle of her.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Own, and she was fighting it in the public square.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: Which brings us to her public journey of recovery and
• 20:36
  the digital footprint she created.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: Yes, in recent years, Ricky used social media to publicly
• 20:42
  document her efforts to maintain her sobriety.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: She didn't hide her struggles at all. She actively shared
• 20:48
  her milestones online.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: She posted the encouragement she received from her kids too.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there was one specific post noted in the sources
• 20:55
  where she shared a photo and captioned it simply winning
• 20:58
  at life.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: And if we connect this to the bigger picture of
• 21:02
  how society handles addiction, what Ricky was doing is a
• 21:05
  radical act of self advocacy.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: Oh for sure, because addiction thrives in isolation and secrecy.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: Exactly, it is fueled by societal shame. By taking her
• 21:17
  journey online, Ricky was dismantling that secrecy.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: She was using a digital platform to build an accountability.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: Loop right yes, and a support system, effectively shattering the
• 21:28
  stigma for herself and likely providing a model of courage
• 21:32
  for others in her network.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: I think the most affecting part of that digital record
• 21:36
  involves her daughters.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: Though, oh without a doubt.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: She frequently cited them as the core reason she continued
• 21:41
  to fight.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: The sources include a letter from November twenty twenty four
• 21:45
  written by her eldest daughter, Ava.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: And Ricky proudly shared this online. I want to look
• 21:50
  closely at the text of this letter because the emotional
• 21:53
  intelligence it displays is just staggered.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: The dynamic between a mother in recovery and a daughter
• 22:00
  observing that fight is incredibly complex.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Ava wrote, I know times are hard right now,
• 22:05
  but I believe in you like nobody else ever. Will
• 22:08
  I love you, mom?
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: And then she says, and this is the part that
• 22:11
  really hits. And since you don't get the appraisal you deserve,
• 22:14
  I'm here to deliver it from everyone.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: I know you can beat this struggle you were going through,
• 22:18
  and I know it's scary, but once you take those
• 22:21
  first few steps in your recovery, it will all start
• 22:24
  blossoming from there.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: The specific phrasing Ava uses there, since you don't get
• 22:28
  the appraisal you deserve, is so reviewing right, because.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: The word appraisal usually refers to determining the financial value
• 22:35
  of a house or a piece.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Of jewelry exactly so for a young woman to use
• 22:40
  that word to describe her mother's fight for sobriety.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: She is identifying a massive societal failure.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: Ava recognized that society rarely offers grace or value to
• 22:50
  the grueling, invisible work of staying sober.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: There are no public awards for waking up every single
• 22:55
  day and making the agonizing choice not to pick up
• 22:57
  a substance.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: No, there aren't, Ava saw saw that societal deficit, that
• 23:02
  lack of appraisal, and she stepped in to provide it herself.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: It demonstrates a profound empathy.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: It really is a breaking of generational trauma where the
• 23:10
  child is actively lifting up the parent through the hardest
• 23:13
  part of their life.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Ricky actually responded to that letter publicly stating that Ava
• 23:17
  was quote one of the three reasons why I'm not
• 23:19
  giving up and still here fighting.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: It's beautiful and heartbreaking.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Here's where it gets really interesting to me, though. Ricky
• 23:27
  posted all of this as a tool for accountability in
• 23:29
  the present moment.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: Yes, to stay on track day by day.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: But tragically, because her life was cut short, this digital
• 23:37
  footprint has undergone a complete functional shift.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: It has basically become an archive exactly.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: It acts as the primary source of narrative control for
• 23:46
  her family now.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: Because Ricky was so transparent about her fight, she ensured
• 23:51
  that the public record reflects her triumphs.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Right, her active progress, and her fierce love for her girls.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: Her digital footprint prevents anyone from reducing her legacy merely
• 24:01
  to her struggles.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Because recovery is an inherently non linear process.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: Right, oh, absolutely, it involves setbacks, agonizing plateaus, and moments
• 24:08
  of incredible progress.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: And the milestone she shared reflect the reality of a
• 24:13
  woman who is doing the active, daily work of rebuilding.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: The deepest tragedy of this timeline is that it is
• 24:20
  an interrupted victory.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: She was actively fighting for her future, which makes the
• 24:25
  suddenness of her loss feel incredibly jagged to the community
• 24:29
  that was cheering her on, and.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: The intensity of her connection with her daughters and her
• 24:33
  role as the glue of her extended family dictates exactly
• 24:37
  how this community is responding in the aftermath.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's look at the community grief, the cultural honoring,
• 24:43
  and the desperate search for answers that followed the discovery
• 24:46
  on County Road thirty nine.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: Because the fallout in a tightly knit rural area is collective,
• 24:51
  everyone feels it.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: The sources highlight the immediate mobilization of her family. Ricky's niece,
• 24:57
  Tajah Miller organized a GoFundMe campaign to support them family.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: And TAJA's public description of her aunt focuses entirely on
• 25:03
  her resilience and her identity as an Indigenous mother.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: She highlights that Ricky spent years fighting addiction, specifically so
• 25:10
  she could be sober for her.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: Girls, noting that her strength inspired everyone who knew her.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: You can really hear the fierce pride in TAJA's description,
• 25:18
  but you also see the raw devastation in the words
• 25:20
  of Ricky's cousin, Derek.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: Derek Scogg. Yeah, he made a public plea for information.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: He called the situation quote absolutely horrendous and beyond sad,
• 25:30
  and he stated a simple, undeniable truth, No one deserves this.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: And what the family and the wider and a Shanabi
• 25:37
  community you are doing with that immense grief is deeply
• 25:40
  structured by their cultural heritage.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Right, because the GoFundMe was organized specifically to cover the
• 25:46
  costs of a traditional Ojibway ceremony.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: Yes, the sources indicate that a traditional jeway service was
• 25:52
  scheduled for Wednesday, July twenty two, twenty twenty six, at
• 25:56
  the ball Club Community Center.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Now for which she might be unfamiliar. How does a
• 26:02
  traditional Innishanabi ceremony function differently from say, a standard Western
• 26:07
  funeral service.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: Well, a standard Western funeral is often focused very much
• 26:10
  on the finality of goodbye.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Right, It's about closure exactly.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: But a traditional Eljubrai ceremony is a highly active, spiritually
• 26:17
  essential process designed to restore balanceriscore balance. What does that
• 26:21
  into It involves guiding the spirit of the deceased on
• 26:23
  their journey, ensuring they transition properly with the help of
• 26:26
  sacred fires, traditional medicines, and specific songs or prayers.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: So it is about maintaining the continiviity of the spirit.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Yes, and equally important is the function it serves for
• 26:37
  the living. How so, these ceremonies are designed to physically
• 26:41
  and spiritually wrap support around the family. The community gathers
• 26:45
  to absorb the shock, collectively lifting up those left behind.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Which in this case is her three daughters exactly.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: Participating in ancestral practices reminds the grieving family that they
• 26:55
  are part of an enduring lineage that has survived immense
• 26:58
  tragedy before.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: It is a structured mechanism for communal healing, it really is.
• 27:03
  You know, I am just struck by the sheer weight
• 27:06
  of the dual burden this family is carrying right now.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: It's an unimaginable amount of pressure.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: On one hand, they are organizing this profound, spiritually necessary
• 27:16
  ceremony to guide Ricky and support her daughters, right, but
• 27:20
  on the other hand, they are forced to manage a
• 27:22
  GoFundMe campaign to pay for it, while simultaneously acting as
• 27:26
  public advocates.
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: Begging the community for tips to solve a suspicious death.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: It is a devastating modern reality for families of victims
• 27:35
  in active investigations. The luxury of private grief just does
• 27:39
  not exist for.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: Them, No, it doesn't. They have to constantly balance their
• 27:42
  spiritual and emotional needs with the demanding logistics of crowdfunding
• 27:47
  and public relations.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: And they have to do it quickly too, because, as
• 27:50
  we discuss with the geography of isolation, time is the
• 27:54
  ultimate enemy of a rural investigation.
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: The decay curve of human memory is so incredibly steep,
• 28:00
  like if a driver.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Saw a vehicle parked on the shoulder of County Road
• 28:03
  thirty nine on Wednesday evening.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: By the following Wednesday, they might not even remember what
• 28:08
  day of the week they took that route exactly.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: So the family has to stay highly visible to ensure
• 28:13
  the community continues to search their memories before those fragile
• 28:17
  details fade completely.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: And the community is in a state of hypervigilance right now,
• 28:21
  hoping that someone holds the missing piece of the puzzle
• 28:24
  that can bring clarity to what happened to Ricky.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Authorities repeatedly stress the importance of prompt public assistance because
• 28:30
  seemingly insignificant details are often what break a case open.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: A specific type of vehicle, a timeframe when traffic was halted,
• 28:39
  or a person walking near the timberlines.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: These are the environmental system logs the BCA and the
• 28:44
  Sheriff's office are desperately trying to recover from the minds
• 28:47
  of the public exactly. So what does this all mean
• 28:50
  when we bring the threads of this deep dive together.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: Well, we started by examining a desolate stretch of road
• 28:56
  in rural Minnesota, unpacking the intense legitistical hurdles of an
• 29:01
  environment that naturally resists investigation.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Right, we analyze the necessity of a multi agency response,
• 29:08
  looking at how the DNR, the tribal police, and the
• 29:11
  BCA each bring a vital piece of expertise.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: Expertise needed to navigate the jurisdictional and geographical complexities of
• 29:18
  the area.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: And we explored why a suspicious designation and an information
• 29:22
  blackout are critical tools to protect holdback evidence.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: And to prevent memory contamination among potential witnesses.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: But the core of this deep dive was Riki lorrain skag.
• 29:32
  We looked at the heavy reality of a mother's interrupted
• 29:34
  recovery and the staggering emotional labor of her caregiving.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: And the fierce cultural bonds of the Leech Lake a
• 29:40
  Jibwe community that mobilize to honor her life.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: So this raises an important question for you, the listener.
• 29:46
  Why should a local investigation in northern Minnesota matter to you?
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: It matters because it is a profound study in human
• 29:53
  resilience and societal structures.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: It challenges us to look at the stigma of addiction,
• 29:58
  the unseen weight of caregiving, and the immense courage it
• 30:01
  takes to fight for a better future in the public eye.
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: It demands that we view victims as complex, multi dimensional
• 30:07
  individuals rather than simply case numbers in a rural sheriff's log.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: It is also a stark reminder of the vital role
• 30:14
  of community vigilance. Definitely, if you were listening to this
• 30:17
  and you were in the Deer River or ball Club
• 30:18
  area on July fifteen or sixteen, twenty twenty six, or
• 30:22
  if you have any information regarding this.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: Case, the Atasca County Sheriff's Office needs you to call two, one, eight, three, two, six, three, four,
• 30:28
  seven seven Option one ticks.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Can be made anonymously, but they are absolutely critical for
• 30:34
  giving Ricky's daughters the answers they deserve.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Law enforcement is still waiting for that one memory to surface.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: As we close out, I want to leave you with
• 30:43
  a final thought to mole over. We spend a lot
• 30:46
  of time discussing Ricky's social media.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: We did.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: She utilized it as a tool for accountability, documenting her
• 30:52
  fight for sobriety to show her daughters she was putting
• 30:55
  in the work, But in doing so, she unwittingly built
• 30:59
  something else. Entirely, she created a permanent public manifesto of
• 31:03
  her love for her children and her relentless desire to
• 31:06
  improve her life.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: She essentially authored her own legacy before she was gone.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, in an age where our digital lives will inevitably
• 31:14
  outlast our physical ones, it makes you wonder, what's that?
• 31:17
  How did the public footprints of our deepest, most difficult
• 31:20
  struggles ultimately become the exact things that define our strength,
• 31:25
  our humanity, and our legacy to the world after we're gone.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: That's a really powerful thought to end on.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: Until next time, take care of yourselves and take care
• 31:33
  of each other,