Rizzo Bone Mystery - August 1997 part 2
Usually Myself
Rizzo Link to Bandidos Denied
By Bill Hendricks
Express-News Staff Writer
Leonard Rizzo is mystified by his wife's disappearance and the discovery
of bone fragments and other human remains at the Southeast Side residence
the couple shared, Rizzo's lawyer says.
"He's very concerned and upset," Bruce Smith said Thursday from his
office in Beaumont. "His first concern is finding his wife. He does not
know how bone fragments got on the property."
Smith lashed out at San Antonio police for telling reporters Wednesday
at a news conference that his client had wanted to join the Bandidos
motorcycle gang.
"Leonard never applied to be a Bandido," Smith said, adding that Rizzo
continues to cooperate with police investigators.
Police and a team of archaeologists from the University of Texas at San
Antonio continued to search for bone fragments Thursday at the Rizzo
home on a cul-de-sac in the 4400 block of Forest Green Street.
Their excavation behind the Rizzo's red brick house has uncovered dozens
of 1-to 2-inch bones, including some that resemble human fingers and
toes.
After obtaining a search warrant July 4, police reported finding "human
bones, hair and body fluids."
But DNA tests conducted at the private GeneScreen Lab in Dallas didn't
identify any of the remains as those of Monika Rizzo, who has not been
seen for more than three months. More bones and fragments are headed to
the lab this weekend, police said.
They say those remains are from at least two people, but they haven't
identified any victims.
According to police reports, Leonard Rizzo Jr. contacted officers June 5
and reported his mother missing.
Reports said the 44-year-old woman left her job May 5 at the Texas
Department of Human Services--leaving her purse behind--then vanished.
Rizzo doesn't know whether his wife is alive or dead, Smith said. "He
prays that she is not dead," Smith said, adding, "he's not responsible
for her disappearance. There wasn't a problem in the marriage."
Rizzo hasn't lived in the house during the weeklong excavation that
continues to turn up bones.
He stayed with one of his two sons for a time, but moved to another
location "in the San Antonio area," Smith said.
Rizzo and his wife didn't always stay in their house, Smith said.
Sometimes they lived in a small, metal building behind their house.
Asked why, Smith said only: "For personal reasons."
According to Bill McKinney, the missing woman's father, Rizzo moved
the building onto the property about five years ago.
The building has been identified as a mobile home but really is a
government surplus office building Rizzo bought at Kelly AFB,
McKinney said.
McKinney explained that Rizzo acquired the building to house his custom
computer business.
Rizzo, with financial help from his father, bought the lot adjoining the
back of the Forest Green Street property, McKinney said.
That land purchase gave Rizzo a wide and deep double lot that stretched
back to Roland Avenue.
A wooden fence with a double swinging gate allowed Rizzo to conduct his
computer business with an entrance on Roland Avenue and not bother his
neighbors on the quiet, Forest Green Street cul-de-sac.
A line of trees beside the Rizzo house and along the fence line that
stretched beside Valleyfield Street to Roland Avenue provided even more
seclusion for Rizzo, his wife and their personal and business
activities.
Lawyer Smith said a San Antonio client of his referred Rizzo to him,
adding that last week he dispatched an investigator to the Alamo City.
"We're looking at all possibilities," Smith said, including what he
said was the possibility that someone planted human bones and other
remains on the Rizzo property in an effort to implicate his client.
Rizzo and his wife were married 26 years ago in Hawaii, where Rizzo's
father was stationed with the Marine Corps.
McKinney, his wife and Monika lived on the islands at the time. Not
long after their daughter married Rizzo, McKinney and his wife moved
to San Antonio.
Eight years ago, Rizzo and his wife arrived here from North Carolina and
built their house on Forest Green Street just a few blocks from her
parent's house.
Monika Rizzo's parents say now that they never really liked Leonard
Rizzo.
"We tolerated him," Bill McKinney told a network television reporter. At
the same time, McKinney said his son-in-law sometimes went to
extraordinary lengths to please Monika Rizzo. He mentioned that his
daughter especially was fond of 1970 Mustang cars. Rizzo found two
junked Mustang autos and over a period of weeks pieced them together
into one car that he gave to his wife on her birthday, McKinney said.
Another time, Rizzo put together pieces of colored glass to fashion a
window in their front door because Monika Rizzo didn't want direct
sunlight coming through that window.
McKinney said he doesn't know what has happened to his daughter. He
fears that she is dead.
Whatever happened at the Rizzo house, McKinney said he holds Rizzo
responsible. But Rizzo's lawyer said, "He has no idea where she is."
August 9, 1997
Cops Make Night Search for Blood Inside Rizzo House
By Bill Hendricks
Express-News Staff Writer
Homicide detectives planned to spend Friday night looking for traces
of blood inside the Southeast Side residence where Monika Rizzo and
Leonard Rizzo Sr. were living when she disappeared about three months
ago.
"We have finished the exterior search," police spokesman Sgt. Ernest
Celaya said Friday afternoon, adding that officers planned a final
search for blood stains inside the residence. Officers were to use a
chemical that highlights blood--and is most efficient in total darkness,
Celaya explained.
They planned to visit the Rizzo house in the 4400 block of Forest Green
Street again today "just to make sure we didn't miss anything inside,"
Celaya added.
"We should be out of there (today) for good," he said. Police and
archaeologists from the University of Texas at San Antonio uncovered
dozens of small bone fragments in an excavation of the Rizzo's backyard.
The bones, including some resembling fingers and toes, are suspected to
be human remains.
Detectives have been taking the bones to the Bexar County medical
examiner's office for examination.
Prior to the excavation that began Aug. 1, officers found a human
jawbone, hair and body fluids at the Rizzo house.
DNA tests performed at the private GeneScreen Lab in Dallas showed that
body parts police found in a July 4 search were not from the missing
woman.
Police officials have said no tests have been conducted on any of the
bones found in the latest search.
Leonard Rizzo Sr., 45, has been staying with friends in the San Antonio
area while detectives and archaeologists search his property for clues
to the whereabouts of his missing wife. Police officials say they
haven't identified a suspect in the case and haven't even established
that a crime occurred.
Monika Rizzo, 44, reportedly left for lunch May 5 from her job at the
Texas Department of Human Services and never returned.
After receiving information from Robert Hakala, a man officers describe
in an affidavit as a friend of the Rizzos, officers went to the couple's
home July 4 and found the human bones, hair and body fluids, according
to an affidavit officers used to obtain one of several search warrants.
In a search July 7, officers reported finding and collecting "what
appeared to be" blood samples.
"An examination of the (Rizzo house) indicates a violent struggle
occurred inside the residence... causing a bleeding injury," police
stated in another affidavit.
On April 8, about a month before Monika Rizzo disappeared, police
reported receiving a call from one of her co-workers.
The caller said Rizzo hadn't been at work for two days and had bruises
on her face and neck a few days earlier, a police report stated.
A police officer reported finding Monika Rizzo at home. The officer said
Rizzo had bruises on her face and neck, but explained that she got the
injuries in an accidental fall.
Her husband's lawyer, Bruce Smith of Beaumont, said this week his client
isn't responsible for Monika Rizzo's disappearance, doesn't know how
bones got in his yard and doesn't know anything about reported injuries.
August 10, 1997
Probers Hope Science, Art Can Put Face on Skull
By Bill Hendricks
Express-News Staff Writer
Investigators believe they can create a nearly lifelike portrait of the
person whose skull was found at the Southeast Side home of Monika Rizzo,
who disappeared three months ago.
A team of homicide detectives, medical examiner investigators,
anthropologists and archaeologists Saturday began reconstructing human
remains found at the residence shared by the missing Rizzo and her
husband, Leonard Rizzo Sr.
Archaeologists from the University of Texas at San Antonio turned up
dozens of small bones during a six-day excavation of the grounds behind
the house in the 4400 block of Forest Green Street. Police earlier found
part of a skull at the house.
The searchers completed their work Friday and turned over the evidence
to Dr. Vincent DiMaio, Bexar County medical examiner.
Monika Rizzo hasn't been seen since May 5, police said. Her husband of
26 years has said through his lawyer that he doesn't know where his
wife went or how bones and other human remains got on his property.
DNA tests of tissue found in a July 4 search determined those remains
were not from the body of Monika Rizzo.
No tests have been performed on bones and other remains uncovered in
subsequent searches, police said.
Steve Hanson, the medical examiner's chief investigator, said Friday
that a team of experts had been assembled and would meet over the
weekend.
Their goal is to identify the remains and determine the cause and manner
of death, Hanson said.
Texas Department of Public Safety identification specialist Karen Taylor
will join the team further into the identification process, Hanson said.
Taylor's role in helping identify skeletons over the past 15 years has
caught the attention of law enforcement agencies across the country.
Another leading member of the team is Gentry Steele, a physical
anthropologist and archaeologist at Texas A&M University.
Taylor and Steele couldn't be reached for comment. Steele helped write
the book "The Anatomy and Biology of the Human Skeleton" and conducts
research in skeletal biology.
Taylor in the mid-1980s added a technique to the science of identifying
skeletons.
She joined a small number of "face finders," professionals who in a
sense bring the dead back to life.
It only has been in this century that scientists--the earliest were
Russian--developed techniques that almost literally allowed them to put
the flesh back on bones that had been buried for centuries.
Scientists had developed techniques that included using 18 points on a
human skull to determine the depth of flesh. Bones sometimes can tell
an anthropologist the age, race, gender and hair and eye color of a
victim.
There also may be clues about the victim's work habits and personal
life, such as whether the victim smoked.
What Taylor added to the process was a portrait artist's skills. Once
she builds the skull's bust to near completion, Taylor sketches a
lifelike portrait.
Among her early successes was the identification of remains found in
Bastrop County that were linked to a missing 23-year-old San Antonio
woman.
Hanson, who is familiar with face finder techniques, said there is
enough of the skull found at the Rizzo house for Taylor and the
anthropologists to re-create the face.
Assembling the skeleton or skeletons may be another matter, since the
bones were chopped into small fragments, but scientists have the
knowledge to reassemble skeletons even if some of the parts are missing.
August 10, 1997
Rizzo Lawyer Denies his Client Wanted to Join Bandidos
SAN ANTONIO (AP) - A man whose backyard has been found littered with
human bones is mystified by the discovery and by his wife's
disappearance, his lawyer says.
"He's very concerned and upset," attorney Bruce Smith of Beaumont said
Thursday. "His first concern is finding his wife. He does not know how
bone fragments got on the property."
Smith also lashed out at San Antonio police for telling reporters his
client had wanted to join the Bandidos motorcycle group.
"Leonard never applied to be a Bandido," Smith said, adding that Rizzo,
45, continues to cooperate with investigators.
Deputy Police Chief Albert Ortiz said in a news conference Wednesday
that Rizzo has been described as a "Bandido wannabe" and that he
"desperately" wanted to join the motorcycle gang.
Police and a team of archaeologists from the University of Texas at
San Antonio are continuing their search for human remains at the
middle-class home where Leonard and Monika Rizzo lived.
The excavation behind the Rizzo's red brick house has uncovered dozens
of bone pieces, including some resembling human fingers and toes. After
obtaining a search warrant July 4, police reported finding "human bones,
hair and body fluids."
DNA tests conducted at the private GeneScreen Lab in Dallas didn't
identify any of the remains as those of Monika Rizzo, 44, who has not
been seen since May. More bone pieces discovered in the past week are
about to be sent to the lab.
Police say the remains are from at least two unidentified people.
August 11, 1997
Rizzo Says Investigation Makes Him Feel Like O.J.
By John MacCormack
Express-News Staff Writer
Leonard Rizzo, whose wife Monika vanished in May and whose yard has
yielded bone fragments of several unknown people, likened himself
Sunday to a figure in a recent highly celebrated murder case.
"I feel like O.J. Simpson. I feel like all of a sudden there is a
nightmare all around me and it's completely beyond my control," he
said.
"I wake up in the morning, and the nightmare is still here. Surreal
isn't the word for it. It's like something you read," he said.
With attorney Bruce Smith at his side, Rizzo spoke outside his
Southeast Side home, which was returned to him Saturday.
Police and archaeologists from the University of Texas at San Antonio
spent the last week there gathering evidence.
Last month, police discovered a human jawbone, hair and body fluids at
the residence in the 4400 block of Forest Green Street. DNA tests thus
far have not linked any of it to Monika Rizzo, 44, his wife of 26 years.
Leonard Rizzo, 45, said he hopes his wife is still alive, although at
one point he referred to her in the past tense, then quickly corrected
himself to speak of her in the present tense. "I can only pray to God
she is alive, well and under her own control, not in an abduction
situation," he said.
"My wife and I have been together for 26 years. There are not two people.
There is one. We are that tight," he said.
Rizzo and Smith criticized San Antonio police, claiming they left the
house ransacked. The house appeared unclean, and its contents were
scattered about--from clothing piled in the bathtub to a queen-size bed
dumped in the living room. Holes also were visible in the walls and
carpet.
"I'm absolutely appalled the police department can treat people's
rights in this fashion. My intention is to speak to the city attorney
about it," Smith said.
In addition, Smith pointed out four crime scene logs that police
apparently left behind Saturday.
"That's not my property. It's not my client's property. Those are
official government documents. I'm absolutely amazed those logs were
left here," Smith said.
San Antonio police Sgt. Jerry Villarreal said police do not attempt to
restore a crime scene to its original condition before they leave.
Rather, he said, they secure it.
"We don't put things away. We make sure no one gets in," he said.
Villarreal expressed great interest in the crime scene logs. "I don't
know anything about that. Anything that belongs to us should have been
taken out," he said.
Signs of evidence gathering abounded, from pieces of wallboard cut out
of walls to sections of carpeting removed from the floors.
Pointing to a large hole cut from the living room wall by police, Rizzo
said, "That's where I put my face through the wall. I was very upset.
That's gonna turn out to be my blood there."
Rizzo, who said he has ridden Harley Davidson motorcycles for the past
23 years, denied reports he had been rejected for membership by the
Bandidos motorcycle club or that motorcycles had any connection to his
current situation.
"I resent being called a Bandido 'wannabe.' It's a foolish, grade-school
term," he said, while acknowledging that he and his wife regularly
socialized with various motorcycle gangs.
Both Rizzo and his attorney denied allegations he had beaten his
diminutive wife or that he had an overly controlling personality.
"I was not a wife beater. I am not a wife beater," he said. "I liked to
be respected. We go to a lot of male-oriented places, and my wife liked
to give me that respect," he said.
He described his 44-year old wife as "demure," with an "attractive
figure," and added, "We tried to keep her weight between 93 and 95
pounds."
Monika Rizzo had lost almost 30 pounds in the year before her
disappearance, but Rizzo said "emotional problems," not marital
problems, were behind the weight loss.
In another odd twist to an already unusual story, Rizzo provided the
press Sunday with a photograph of an elaborate tattoo on his wife's
back. He said its publication could help in locating her.
"It's a warrior fairy princess. I drew it up," he said.
Dominating the tattoo is a likeness of Rizzo's face staring out from
between his wife's shoulder blades.
Rizzo's father-in-law, Bill McKinney, 65, said Sunday his daughter's
long marriage began deteriorating in the last year, roughly
corresponding to Rizzo's loss of a job.
"He was very possessive, very controlling, very jealous and very
domineering," McKinney said of Rizzo, a son-in-law whom he admits he
does not like.
"I never saw her bruised. We never saw a mark ourselves, but we heard
about it from her co-workers, and that's why we were totally shocked,"
he said.
McKinney said one co-worker filed a report with police in April after
seeing bruises on Monika, but he said his daughter denied any problems
existed when police came to her house.
McKinney said he is certain his daughter did not just simply leave.
"She left without taking any clothing, a driver's license, a charge card
or any money? Without a car? I have ruled out any possibility of a
voluntary disappearance," he said.
McKinney said he last saw his daughter Jan. 22, when he and his wife
took Leonard and Monika out to celebrate her birthday with a nice meal.
But, he said, the occasion was not as festive as he had hoped.
"It was pretty cool. She wasn't as spunky as she usually is, and
conversation during dinner was pretty labored," he said.
"We had to be careful with the topic. We couldn't discuss his job,
unemployment or how his job search was going. So we discussed the birds
and the flowers and the bees," he said.
Rizzo, in turn, said Monika's lifelong relationship with her parents was
rife with conflict and was the cause of her recent emotional problems.
August 13, 1997
First Bones From Rizzo Yard Belonged to one Adult Female
By Bill Hendricks
Express-News Staff Writer
A human jaw and other bones found July 4 at the home of a missing
Southeast Side woman are part of the same female skeleton, police said
Tuesday.
DNA tests made at the private GeneScreen Lab in Dallas showed the bones
were not those of Monika Rizzo, who reportedly disappeared May 5.
A second DNA test hasn't been completed, said police spokesman Al Ballew,
adding that the bones are those of an adult female.
Mrs. Rizzo lived with her husband, Leonard Rizzo, in the 4400 block of
Forest Green Street.
Police returned to the Rizzo property Aug. 1 and began an excavation of
the backyard that yielded dozen of small bone fragments.
It hasn't been determined whether any of the bone fragments match bones
found in the earlier search, Ballew said.
Police plan DNA tests of the fragments, which investigators say may be
the remains of two or three people.
A team that includes an anthropologist and a "face finder"
identification specialist has been assembled to aid in the case.
August 13, 1997
Police wrap up backyard bone dig, wait for answers
By Kelley Shannon
Associated Press Writer
SAN ANTONIO (AP) - For a solid week, police officers assisted by
archaeologists and cadaver-sniffing dogs picked through Leonard Rizzo's
backyard looking for human bones.
Their grisly search paid off.
Dozens of bone fragments, some believed to be from human toes and
fingers, are among the remains unearthed from behind Rizzo's middle-
class brick home the first week of August.
A skull and human body tissue were found in the yard a month earlier.
Lab tests indicated those remains belonged to two or perhaps three
people, though none have been linked to Rizzo's missing 44-year-old
wife, Monika Rizzo.
Police found the first batch of bones behind the Rizzo home in July
after receiving an anonymous tip that Mrs. Rizzo's body could be found
there.
A top-to-bottom search of the Rizzo home ended Saturday, leaving police
investigators with a multitude of unanswered questions.
"Whether it's a serial killer or maybe that's just where bodies got
dumped, we don't know. We don't even know that these people were killed
by somebody else. We just know that we have remains," said Deputy Police
Chief Albert
Ortiz.
Some of the bones found in the latest search now are being sent to a
Dallas laboratory for DNA testing, police Sgt. Ernest Celaya said
Tuesday.
The skull found in July was determined to have belonged to an
unidentified adult woman. It has been sent to a Texas Department of
Public Safety lab in Austin for artistic reconstruction of what the face
may have looked like, Celaya said.
Some of the bones found at the home were in such small pieces they
appeared to have been sawed or chopped up, police said.
Police describe Rizzo, 45, as a suspect in a homicide investigation
centering on the bones, but they have not charged him with any crime.
Mrs. Rizzo is listed as a missing person.
Rizzo, speaking with reporters Sunday, said he is worried about his wife
of 26 years. He said he doesn't know where she might be.
"I can only pray to God she is alive, well and under her own control,
not in an abduction situation," he said.
Mrs. Rizzo disappeared from her job at the Texas Department of Human
Services at lunch time May 5 without her purse. Her grown son reported
last seeing her in the middle of the night May 27. It was unclear where
she had been during those three weeks.
Rizzo said it's premature to assume the bones discovered in his yard are
human.
"I have no idea how it got there," he said.
Rizzo also has criticized police for leaving his house in disarray after
the search in which pieces of mattresses, carpeting and walls were
seized as evidence.
The police contend the house was a wreck before the search.
Investigators also have collected evidence at another house in south San
Antonio, including debris from a family's burn heap and a suspicious-
looking rump roast the Rizzo's reportedly gave the family.
It isn't known whether any of that evidence is human, Ortiz said.
Police say they hope to find a logical reason for the presence of the
backyard bones, but they've had little to go on.
"We expected an avalanche of calls," Ortiz said. "We've had less than a
handful of calls."
Investigators have ruled out that the yard is the site of old cemetery.
Ortiz acknowledges there are "some people that travel the countryside
collecting these oddities, including skulls and stuff."
But police aren't betting a lawful explanation will surface.
"Whenever you find the remains of two or three people in a yard,"
Ortiz said, "you're not optimistic."
August 18, 1997
Tavern Raid Tied to Rizzo
By Bill Hendricks
Express-News Staff Writer
The same night Bandidos motorcycle gang leaders appeared on TV news to
say they didn't know how human bones turned up in a missing woman's
backyard, more than a dozen police officers raided a tavern catering to
Bandidos and arrested everybody in sight.
None of those arrested was identified as a Bandido. According to police
reports, officers went to Lil Sturgis Lounge, 1331 Austin Highway, to
conduct a routine tavern inspection.
But Donald Hoppe, who owns the tavern, said police had more on their
minds than a regular check.
He said police were looking for information concerning the discovery of
human bones in the backyard of Leonard Rizzo Sr. and his wife, Monika,
who disappeared May 5.
Hoppe, 63, said he's unaware of any possible link between Lil Sturgis
patrons and the disappearance of Monika Rizzo, or the discovery of the
bones in the backyard of the Southeast Side residence.
Rizzo and his wife of 26 years lived in the 4400 block of Forest Green
Street.
The husband was an infrequent patron, Hoppe said. He said he was told
Monika Rizzo had dropped in a few times, but he never saw her.
Leonard Rizzo said he doesn't know what happened to his wife or how
bones got into his yard. None of the human remains have been identified.
As for the Bandidos, the husband said he's ridden and partied with them,
but hasn't aspired to be a member.
Police arrived at Lil Sturgis Lounge at 9:30 p.m. Aug. 7. Officers
arrested Hoppe and eight others.
A 36-year-old man was charged with possession of cocaine, another man
was charged with being in possession of a pistol and six others were
arrested on criminal warrants, according to police reports.
Hoppe said 25 to 30 officers took part in the raid, which he claimed
constituted excessive force.
Officers included vice and homicide detectives, uniformed officers
assigned to Special Operations and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission
agents.
"My place is only 1,600 square feet," Hoppe said. "If there had been
any more police in here, they'd have been in violation of the fire code."
Hoppe said homicide detectives brought him to police headquarters,
where he made a written statement on the Rizzo case.
"There wasn't much I could tell them," he said.
Hoppe said he's careful to keep troublemakers out of his tavern.
Patrons who bother other customers are told to leave and not return,
Hoppe added.
Hoppe said Robert Hakala, who has been interviewed by police concerning
the bones in the Rizzo yard, had been a customer at the Lil Sturgis
Lounge.
Police reports say Hakala, 36, told officers he went to the Rizzo home
about three months ago and saw a dog playing with a jawbone in the
backyard.
Hakala reportedly told police he thought he recognized the jawbone as
belonging to the missing woman.
Two days before police raided the tavern, Hakala complained to a
reporter that detectives had pressed him for more information. He
pleaded that he had told investigators everything he knew.
Two days after the raid, according to a police report taken at a
hospital emergency room, a 40-year-old woman complained that she had
been beaten up at the tavern. She reported to an officer she was told
"this is for the Rizzo case."
Police investigators, scientists and a Department of Public Safety
artist are continuing efforts to identify bones found on the Rizzo
property.
August 29, 1997
Experts Identify Bones as Rizzo's Remains From Three Others Also Found
in Backyard
By Brenda Rodriguez and Marty Sabota
Express-News Staff Writers
Bone fragments found behind a Southeast Side home earlier this month
belong to Monika Rizzo--reported missing three months ago--and three
other people, police said Thursday.
"The focus of the investigation now is to identify the other people,"
Deputy Police Chief Albert Ortiz said at a Thursday afternoon news
conference.
Detectives interviewed Monika Rizzo's parents, Bill and Monika McKinney,
and her husband, Leonard Rizzo, but said they were no closer to
identifying a suspect in her disappearance than they were when she was
last seen May 27.
Leonard Rizzo, who has not been arrested nor charged with any crime,
remains a suspect in the case, Ortiz said.
"It was a homicide, but we have to prove that. We don't have any
indication that they (homicides) may have been committed inside the
house. We just don't know," Ortiz said.
Earlier DNA tests did not produce a match between Monika Rizzo and bone
fragments found in the Rizzo's yard. The results announced Thursday stem
from a second search conducted by archaeologists.
"Everyone is a suspect," he added. "We are looking at friends and
associates of the Rizzos. This was probably not random. To me, this had
to do with someone they associated with... this was calculated."
A man who identified himself as Leonard Rizzo's son was contacted by
phone at the Rizzo home Thursday but declined to talk with a reporter.
"I was about to leave," the man said. "I can't talk now."
Leonard Rizzo would not comment on the latest developments in his wife's
disappearance. His attorney, Bruce Smith of Beaumont, did not return
phone calls.
News of the DNA match jolted the missing woman's parents. Monika
McKinney said she was at home and her husband was playing golf when the
police called at about 11:30 a.m. Thursday.
"My stomach just flopped," she said while nervously smoking at a
kitchen table in her home.
During an interview with the San Antonio Express-News, at least 15
messages from the media were left on her answering machine.
Officers earlier told her and her husband "they found part of her leg
and it matched, but not 100 percent."
The couple said they didn't need DNA tests to be 100 percent accurate to
convince them of what they already believed: that their daughter was
dead.
"Our hope was down to 10 percent, but now it's down to zero," Monika
McKinney said. "Until now, I'd hoped they'd find Monika (alive) and I
could hug her."
Bill McKinney, who turns 65 today, said he and his wife believed they
were prepared to hear what they already suspected.
But, he added, the outcome of the test results was "like a hard hit in
the chest."
"When you hear it, bong, you fall apart real quick," he said.
A month after Monika Rizzo was reported missing, an anonymous caller
informed police there was a body buried in the backyard of the Rizzo
home.
Shortly after July 4, police found a human skull and chopped-up bone
fragments at the Rizzo home. Two garbage bags with human tissue and
animal remains also were found.
DNA tests performed at the time by GeneScreen Labs Inc. in Dallas
indicated the bones could belong to up to three people, but Monika
Rizzo was not one of them.
But on Aug. 1, police called the UTSA team to begin a weeklong
excavation of the half-acre yard. Archaeologists unearthed more bones,
which were sent for more DNA tests to the Dallas lab.
Among the bones were fragments that were identified as those of
44-year-old Monika Rizzo.
Reverse DNA testing--DNA taken from her husband and one of her two
sons to determine her DNA profile--was used to make the match.
The other bones found at the home cannot be identified until
investigators have DNA samples for comparisons, police said.
But while officials still are searching for clues to the bizarre case,
Monika Rizzo's parents already are preparing for a trial and conviction.
"We're going to have a front-row seat, and I'm going to stare at him in
the eyes as hard as I can," Monika McKinney said of whomever is charged
in her daughter's death.
Although no plans have been made, McKinney said she would like to have a
memorial service in a church for her daughter.
August 30, 1997
Police Release Sketch Compiled From Skull
By Melissa Prentice
Express-News Staff Writer
She was young, with a curved chin, a noticeable overbite and a prominent
nose.
But San Antonio police know little more about a woman whose skull was
found among the chopped-up bone fragments of four people unearthed in a
Southeast Side backyard.
A sketch of the woman drawn by Texas Department of Public Safety artist
Karen Taylor was released to the media Friday in the hope that someone
would be able to recognize the woman. Her identity may give police the
missing link needed to solve the bizarre case that began with Monika
Rizzo's May disappearance.
The case developed into a multiple homicide investigation this week
after bones found in her family's yard were identified as belonging
to Rizzo and three unidentified people.
The woman--whose likeness was drawn from mathematical calculations and
an artist's interpretation of her skull--is described as an Anglo,
likely in her 20s or early 30s. She is believed to have had severe dental
problems that caused her a lot of pain.
Anyone with information that can identify the woman is asked to call the
San Antonio Police Department's Missing Person's Office at 207-7662.
Nearly a month after police and University of Texas at San Antonio
archaeologists unearthed dozens of 1-to 2-inch bone fragments--including
some in a barbecue pit that resembled fingers and toes--police still have
more questions than answers.
The announcement Thursday by the Dallas GeneScreen Lab that DNA evidence
proved 44-year-old Monika Rizzo indeed was among the four victims only
"closed one chapter." "We know we have a multiple homicide but we still
have the burden of proving who did it and how," Deputy Chief Albert
Ortiz said Friday.
Was it the work of one person or a group? Were they killed at the home
on Forest Green Street or elsewhere and scattered, piece by piece, in
the backyard? Did they die together or one at a time?
Police also are puzzled by the identities of the three nameless victims.
DNA tests--which identified four distinct DNA strands--were unable to
show the age, sex or physical characteristics of the three unknown
individuals whose fates led them to the bone-filled backyard. Ortiz said
Friday that police now believe there are only four victims.
The DNA evidence virtually is useless without a known person's DNA for
comparison. Investigators obtained DNA from Monika Rizzo's son and
subtracted that of her husband to identify her bones.
The woman's sketch has been compared to photographs of all known local
missing people--without a match, Ortiz said. "The detectives have a huge
task ahead of them," police spokeswoman Sandy Perez said.
Identifying the victims is the detective's first priority.
No arrests are expected until many of those questions are answered.
Since learning Thursday that Monika Rizzo is a homicide victim rather
than a missing person, police repeated lengthy interviews with her
husband of 26 years, Leonard Rizzo; one of her sons; and her parents,
Bill and Monika McKinney. But Ortiz said the interviews turned up little
new information. Police said Leonard Rizzo remains just one of many
suspects in the case.
"He is absolutely devastated," his attorney, Bruce Smith of Beaumont,
said about Rizzo's reaction to news that his wife is dead.
Smith said Leonard Rizzo was preparing an Internet Web site he hoped
would help locate his missing wife.
"He was real excited about doing what he could to put out a nationwide
search for his wife."
Leonard Rizzo plans to mourn throughout the weekend with his two adult
sons before arranging a funeral.
The McKinneys are planning a memorial for their daughter as soon as
photographs lent to national television shows "Inside Edition" and
"Unsolved Mysteries" are returned.
Monika McKinney said the past three months have been a roller-coaster
that has torn apart her family. Her 22-year-old grandson was
hospitalized last week with pneumonia and cancer, but she and her
husband--who have been suspicious of Leonard Rizzo--were not told and
were not allowed to visit.
Although this week's news was devastating, at least they now know
Monika's fate, the mother said.
"I knew the Fourth of July that she was not alive. Then I got a little
glimmer of hope," she said. When the police called Thursday, "I thought
maybe they had Monika there sitting in a chair, so I could hug her."
The couple plans to continue offering a $1,000 reward for any
information that will lead to the arrest and prosecution of Monika's
killer.
Archaeologists unearthed only partial skeletons of each of the four
victims, Ortiz said.
A police investigator took several pieces of the bone fragments to the
Dallas lab and scientists selected the bones with the intact,
non-decayed bone marrow from which DNA could be more easily extracted.
Because police opted for a private lab with the newest DNA techniques,
the DNA sequences of the three unknown victims cannot be added to a
national Combined DNA Index System, which uses older technology, police
said.
The bones, which were small and decomposing, gave few clues about the
cause of death.
--
God will pardon me. It's His profession.
--Heinrich Heine