CHARDON, Ohio — A Geauga County jury has found Gail Eastwood-Ritchey guilty of murder, but not guilty of aggravated murder in the decades-old case known as “Geauga’s Child.”
The jury’s decision on Monday evening came hours after closing arguments concluded at around 10:30 a.m. Bond for Eastwood-Ritchey was also revoked.
The trial, which lasted four days in Geauga County Common Pleas Court, began back on March 31. Eastwood-Ritchey did not take the stand in her own defense.
It’s a case that dates back to March 25, 1993, when a baby boy’s body was found in a trash bag along Sidley Road. The case remained cold for years until Eastwood-Ritchey was arrested in June of 2019. Authorities say she was identified through familial DNA that was matched to that of “Geauga’s Child.”
Detectives produced a 1,400-member family tree through DNA submitted to the ancestry service, GED Match. Vernon Holden, formerly of Bay Village, who now lives in Omaha, Nebraska, was the one who submitted his father-in-law's DNA, which ultimately cracked the 29-year-old cold case. Forensic genealogists were able to narrow the family tree to Eastwood-Ritchey.
"It's my wife's third cousin, that's Gail Eastwood-Ritchey," said Holden in an exclusive interview with 3News Investigates reporter Lynna Lai. "There's a little remorse there that it's a family member, and a remote one at that. But if you take away that, I'm very pleased and happy that I was able to do that for the community," he said.
You can watch the verdict being read on Monday evening in the player below:
You can watch Isabel Lawrence's report shortly after the verdict was read below:
A big focus of the closing arguments earlier on Monday had to do with whether the baby was born alive, or was a stillbirth.
The state argued that the baby was born alive and that Eastwood-Ritchey knew that when she put him in a garbage bag and drove to the woods. They also argued that in getting the garbage bag to put the baby in, there was a plan in place, showing prior calculation.
“A newborn baby boy was born to this woman, and she literally treated him like a piece of garbage. She birthed him, threw him in a garbage bag, tied him up suffocating him, then tossed him in the woods. Didn’t even bury him. And again, listening to her interview, barely gave it a thought for 26 years," said Geauga County Assistant Prosecutor Nicholas Burling.
However, the defense argued that Eastwood-Ritchey didn't see the baby move or hear it make a sound. That it was in fact a stillbirth, meaning she did not kill the baby.
“She never indicates that she saw the baby move or heard the baby make a sound in fact, just the opposite," said defense attorney Steven Bradley. "That she didn’t see the baby move, that she didn’t hear the baby make a sound. And all of that would be evidence consistent with the fact this was not a live birth, this is in fact a stillbirth. The state has no, as in zero, reliable evidence, underscore reliable, zero, to point to the fact that this was a live birth. Let alone sufficient evidence to get them over the threshold of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Bradley in his opening statement disputed a Cuyahoga County coroner's conclusion the baby was born alive and was breathing when the then 22-year-old Eastwood gave birth in the bathroom of a Shaker Heights home where she worked as a nanny.
We streamed Monday's closing arguments, which you can watch in full below:
PREVIOUS COVERAGE:
- RELATED: 'Geauga's Child' murder trial: Closing arguments conclude, jury begins deliberations
- RELATED: Trial begins for Euclid woman charged in 'Geauga's Child' murder case
- RELATED: Woman charged in 'Geauga's Child' cold case pleads not guilty, posts bail
- RELATED: 'Geauga's Child' deputy on woman indicted in cold case: 'I hope to make her pay'
- RELATED: Woman indicted in 'Geauga’s Child' cold case from 1993, may have also been involved in 'similar' crime