I recently got email from the family of Ricky Dyer, Jr., who died in 1993 in Nevada. His case was ruled a suicide, but his family believes he was murdered. An outline of the case is here. They’re also gathering signatures for the Nevada Attorney General here. Obviously I’m not in a position to judge, but independent investigators who have looked at the case seem to believe there is enough there to warrant a more thorough investigation. (I also suggested hiring an independent pathologist to review the entire case file from the medical examiner’s office.)
As if murder, death of any sort really, isn’t bad enough, these gray-area cases, like missing persons cases, and homicide vs suicide disputes, they’re just so unendingly awful. I did a piece for NPR a year or two ago about a family in West Virginia who lost five children in a fire and who, to this day, believe that their children did not die in the fire, but were kidnapped. (Not a comment on the Dyer family, by the way.) It’s worse than a cold case, come to think of it.
My condolences to the Dyer family. I hope you get the investigation and answers you seek.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Teraisa // Apr 4, 2011 at 5:12 am
Thank you for saying what I’ve been thinking a very long time… these cases are miserable and pretty much without end. I wish there was a way to help everyone.
2 Stacy Horn // Apr 4, 2011 at 9:46 am
They really are, but I was just reading somewhere that the government program namus.gov is producing results.
3 Chris // Mar 1, 2022 at 3:35 am
Ricky and I were best friends. We first met at school in 1985. We talked right before this happened about moving in together. He would have never taken his own life and put his family and friends through this. I miss him and think about him on a daily basis. I hope someday the truth will come out and there will be justice for him.
4 Danielle Barker // Dec 18, 2023 at 3:04 pm
I first came across this case in 2016 when I had to choose a cold case to research for my high school class. I wanted to pick a case close to home since I’m from Las Vegas, Nevada. I sat for days reading and writing about this case and I created a power point for my project highlighting the evidence. This was most definitely not a suicide. It’s obviously a homicide. Recently, I’ve decided to look back at this case and rewrite that high school essay because in college I had crossed paths with a person who almost destroyed my life. Now as a 23 year old, I’ve realized how important it is for the Dyer family to find answers. I think the more we talk and write about this the more eyes and ears will reach. Ricky deserves justice, and so does his family.
5 Stacy Horn // Dec 19, 2023 at 9:52 am
Hello Danielle. With a little over a third of all homicides in the United States remaining unsolved, there are so so many families who will never have answers. It’s a national tragedy.
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