Fugitive's family finding closure after his arrest

Fugitive's family finding closure after his arrest

Man's children, ex-wife still haunted by memories of abuse

BY RUSS RIZZO
The Salt Lake Tribune

November 4, 2007

POCATELLO, Idaho -- The photographs portray a deceptively pleasant scene.

Lyndal Dale Ritterbush -- the Utah prison escapee arrested last week after 22 years on the run from police -- stands towering above his three young sons in front of a brick mantel. His wife, Beverly, is pictured with her oldest daughter, Shonna, who is holding little Leah.

"That's the last time we were a normal family," said Beverly Clayton, who divorced Ritterbush and since has remarried.

Since that photo was taken in 1982, Ritterbush has become a nationally known fugitive while living a seemingly normal life in Salem under his brother-in-law's name. The family he left behind has struggled to find normalcy while shaking haunting memories of a past that is never far away.

Gathered wi! th her five children in her youngest son's home here Friday, Beverly Clayton said Ritterbush's arrest brought needed closure for the family but raised new questions, too.

Chief among them, she said, was whether Ritterbush -- who was convicted of sexually abusing both his daughters -- was around small children during his years as a fugitive.

"He took his problems with him," Clayton said. "I'm sure there are other victims."

The unraveling of the Ritterbush clan came in 1982 when Shonna ran away from home. Pressed for answers, Shonna, who was 14, admitted to her mother that Ritterbush had raped her for a decade when the two were alone in the family's Ogden, Utah, home.

Ritterbush eventually was convicted of incest and served a year before being released on parole.

Clayton divorced Ritterbush but took him back months later after attending counseling with him.

"He cried these big alligator tears," Clayton said. "I really believed he had change! d."

But the second marriage lasted two weeks, ending whe! n the co uple's youngest daughter, Leah, told her mother that she, too, was molested.

Leah Ritterbush recalled Friday how Ritterbush once tricked her brother Jason into going outside. He locked the door, Leah Ritterbush said, and sodomized his daughter while Jason beat on the door.

Ritterbush again was convicted of molesting a daughter -- this time on a reduced charge of attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child -- and returned to prison. Six months later, at the Utah State Prison in Draper, he walked away from a minimum-security facility with another man while a guard was distracted by a nearby fight.

Seven days after escaping, Ritterbush called Shonna asking for food. She met him in the back of an Ogden gas station with sandwiches, she said.

"My dad called wanting food, and I brought him food," Shonna Ritterbush said.

The act of kindness to a man who put her through so much abuse is a testament to the psychological grip her father had on her, Shonna! Ritterbush said.

To this day, Shonna Ritterbush points to positive qualities her dad had while talking about the torment she experienced.

"He's a kind man," she said. "How ------ up is it to have that done to you and call him nice? That's the twisted part about it."

Ritterbush called Beverly, too, asking for money and a jacket, she said. But Clayton, who called Ritterbush a "master manipulator," offered only to help him turn himself in.

Feeling guilty after another phone call, the mother and daughter searched a train station in Ogden looking for Ritterbush with a jacket in hand. They never found him and never heard from him again.

For two decades, the Ritterbushes have speculated what happened to their dad. They figured with his hunting and outdoor skills, he could have survived just about anywhere.

They have dealt with suspicion from police and the stigma of being related to a nationally known fugitive since. As recently as two years ag! o, FBI agents visited Shonna Ritterbush, after she connected l! ights to a playhouse behind her home, she said. FBI agents called Leah Ritterbush around the same time, she said, asking about her dad out of the blue.

The brothers and sisters laugh as they talk about how different their father looks now.

"He looks like freakin' Santa Claus," Ed Ritterbush said. "If I saw him in the mall, I'd bring my kids up to him."

That point in particular concerns the Ritterbushes. They know he is a nice man, Shonna Ritterbush said, but also have learned "he's a completely different person when he gets you alone."

The emotional scars have healed over time, the family says, although it is clear from the daughters' shaking voices and tears that the memories will never disappear.

Their pursuits point to efforts to make sense of the family tragedy and help others in similar positions.

Clayton, who is about to celebrate her 13th wedding anniversary, went back to school and became a social worker after her husband's escape. Her dau! ghter Leah also has pursued a degree in social work and runs a cleaning business with Shonna. Jason Ritterbush is studying sociology at Idaho State University.

He said his marriage certificate lists "father unknown."

The entire family lives in Pocatello. They visit one another often. But Friday was the first time since the 1980s that they discussed the physical abuse suffered by the daughters, Clayton said.

"This is emotional for us," Clayton said. "But it's good. We're a strong family."

The arrest this week brought closure for Shonna and Leah Ritterbush, the women said.

"It's overdue," Leah Ritterbush said.

Shonna Ritterbush nodded in agreement.

"It's way overdue," she said.

By: Antonio Easter

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Antonio Easter is a Master Internet Marketer, Home Business Mentor, and Coach, who specializes in helping people from all walks of life, walk away from their job within 30 days or less.

Source: http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006711040313
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