Thursday, September 8, 2011

Sugar Grove, WV: Kindness to ex sealed family's fate

By Richard Gazarik and Liz Zemba
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, September 8, 2011

An act of kindness by a West Virginia family caused a bipolar man, who wasn't taking his medicine and dabbled with heroin, to slaughter a father, a mother, a pregnant daughter, a 17-year-old son and a family friend, the killer's ex-girlfriend said.

Shayne Riggleman, a motel clerk from Morgantown, drove to nearby Sugar Grove and wiped out everyone in the home of Charles Richardson III, 49, because he and his wife dared to rescue the girlfriend from the abusive Riggleman.

The ex-girlfriend, Brittany Harwood, 18, of Fairchance in Fayette County, said on Wednesday that she thinks that's why Riggleman went off on a maniacal killing spree.

Riggleman ended the journey of insanity along a Kentucky highway by firing a bullet into his head early Tuesday, police said.

"I don't know why he didn't kill me," Harwood said. "He wanted to kill me first and then go on the rampage shooting people and then kill himself."

Richardson and his wife, 50-year-old Karin Richardson, saved Harwood six weeks ago when a neighbor heard Riggleman abusing Harwood and called the Richardsons to come get her in the middle of the night. It was then that Harwood, a friend of the Richardsons' daughter, broke up with Riggleman.

In return, Riggleman gunned down the couple and Karin Richardson's children -- 22-year-old Katrina Hudson and 17-year-old Kevin Hudson -- and 30-year-old Robert Raber, a family friend, West Virginia State Police said. Katrina Hudson's baby was due in December.

After slaughtering the family, Riggleman drove to Fairchance to get Harwood on Monday afternoon, she said. She had no idea what he had done.

Harwood said she thought she was going to die when she saw him pull Karin Richardson's Jeep into the driveway of her father's home in Fairchance.

Riggleman opened the driver's side door and beckoned. "I said I'm not getting in the car with you. You're crazy," Harwood said.

"I'm surprised he didn't kill her in the driveway," said her father, Keith Harwood. "He had a killing list. He told her, 'I'm going to kill you. You're first on the list.'"

Harwood met Riggleman in a Morgantown pet store about a year ago. They later moved into an apartment above Zens Bar & Grill in Star City, just outside Morgantown.

Harwood said she didn't learn until then about Riggleman's drug and mental health problems. She said his behavior became more bizarre after he stopped taking his medication. She learned that he had served 14 months for armed robbery in a state prison for young offenders.

Then she learned Riggleman was expecting a child with an ex-girlfriend. The baby, Chase, was born this month, Harwood said. His mother could not be reached for comment.

"He was mentally and emotionally abusive," Harwood said. "He was tearing me down all the time. We had gotten a dog, and the dog bit me, and I tried to correct him by hitting his snout, and Shayne tried to punch me in the face."

Harwood said she was a friend of Katrina Hudson's, and the Richardsons became her second family.

"I wished he would have killed me instead of killing my family," she said. "They weren't blood-related to me, but they claimed me as their daughter. I wished he would have killed me instead of killing my family. He did that so I could feel the same pain."

From his encounter with Harwood, Riggleman drove south on Route 857, where he plowed into a car driven by Sidney Lee Bush, 58, an employee of the Fayette County Controller's Office who had just dropped off her boyfriend, Tony Williams, at work.

Bush said a Jeep came up fast behind her Honda Civic.

"I looked in the rearview mirror, and here he came, flying, and I mean flying," Bush said. "He hit me so hard, he spun my car back around, to (Centerville) Clinic."

Bush crawled from the wreckage toward the highway, where she tried to wave down a passing motorist for help. When no one stopped, she stood up, only to see the Jeep barreling straight for her.

"There he was, coming at me full speed," Bush said. "He just ran me down like a dog. He hit me, and my body went up into the air."

"The whole magnitude of it is just devastating," said Torra Robinson of Fairchance as she sat next to Bush's bed in Uniontown Hospital yesterday.

"He was in such a rage," Robinson said. "He shot everyone, everybody else. He could have shot her."

Bush suffered lacerations, bruises and fractures to her left knee, ankle, wrist and elbow.

Riggleman left Bush behind, fleeing south where he wounded gas station attendant Don Nichols, in Amma, W.Va., about 30 miles outside of Charleston. Yesterday, Nichols remained in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the neck.

While at the gas station, Riggleman aborted a carjacking attempt when the mother behind the wheel begged for mercy, said state police in West Virginia.

Riggleman fled into Kentucky, where a deputy sheriff from Lewis County flagged him for driving recklessly.

Riggleman pulled over and shot himself, Kentucky state police said. Police found a high-powered rifle, a .22-caliber rifle and a handgun in the Jeep.

Harwood said Riggleman harassed her, sent her text messages and posted messages on her Facebook page proclaiming she was the "love of his life."

"I mate for life like a praying mantis," Riggleman posted on his Facebook wall.

Riggleman was working the front desk at the Travel Lodge motel in Morgantown. Harwood complained to his parole officer and to West Virginia state police about his threatening behavior, but the police could not act on verbal threats.

On July 4, Keith Harwood hosted a family outing at which Riggleman behaved strangely.

"He walked around like he was really out of it. He was holding conversations with himself and answering himself. I'm thinking, 'What in the hell is the problem?'" Harwood said.

In his last posting to Facebook, at 4 p.m. Monday, Riggleman wrote: "Why wouldn't they let me join the military? I'm fully capable, and there was no career for me."

"My Lord, that surprised me," Harwood said. "He never mentioned that."

Brittany Harwood contacted two of Riggleman's former girlfriends, who told similar stories of bizarre behavior and abuse. They told her to get out of the relationship.

Neither Riggleman's stepfather, Robert Konchesky, nor his mother, Tammy Renee Konchesky, would discuss him. Other relatives did not respond to requests for comment.

Richard Gazarik and Liz Zemba can be reached at rgazarik@tribweb.com or 724-830-6292.


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