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Rhonda “Chantay” Blankinship was tragically found murdered, her body abandoned in the storm cellar of an old farmhouse in Texas, a location notorious among locals for being “haunted.”
For over 18 months, Chantay’s attacker and murderer remained hidden within the community, until advancements in DNA technology brought his identity to light.
Dateline: Unforgettable revisited this harrowing case in a gripping episode titled “The Haunted House Confession,” which aired on Thursday, December 11, at 8/7c p.m.
On Friday, May 13, 2016, the 25-year-old Chantay set out for her routine evening walk around her neighborhood in North Lake, Texas.
As was her habit, she called her grandfather at dusk to inform him she was on her way back home. Tragically, she never made it there.
Around sunset, like clockwork, she called her grandfather to let him know she was on her way home. She never arrived.
A search by law enforcement, aided by neighbors and townsfolk who knew Chantay from North Lake Community Church, was organized.
About 48 hours after going missing, Chantay’s body was found at the “Haunted House” about five miles from her area by two volunteers.
Charlie Radle and Jackie Neal had noticed a clump of hair, bracelets and fresh tire tracks. They eventually discovered her body and called police.
“It was a very brutal assault,” Brown County Sheriff’s Office Captain Scott Bird told Dateline correspondent Blayne Alexander. “There were cuts and bruises around her face and head.”
An autopsy revealed she died from blunt-force trauma, caused by a bloody lawnmower blade near her body. It also showed she was sexually assaulted.
Strange marks near her throat were also noted. DNA was collected and sent out for testing.
Who was Chantay Blankinship?
The brutality of the murder was striking, especially since Chantay was beloved in her community.
She’d developed slowly as a child when it came to walking and talking. “It was like she aged to a certain point,” her sister, Destinee Jarvis, recounted to Dateline, “and she stopped.”
At age 25, Chantay was known for her magnetic smile and love of all sparkles and glitter. Friends in her neighborhood and church looked out for her. She had no enemies.
Police search for a motive and suspects
Because the murder occurred on Friday, the 13th at the “Haunted House,” law enforcement wondered if the homicide was linked to cult activity. That line of investigation led nowhere.
Detectives focused on men in Chantay’s life. They included Ragle, who found her body, her boyfriend John Adams, a neighbor Bobby Soza, a local resident, Colin Smith, who’d had a sexual relationship with her, and even her pastor.
Each person of interest was thoroughly investigated. Their DNA was compared to evidence collected. Investigators collected samples from at least two dozen men, including Chantay’s grandfather.
“Nobody,” said Chantay’s mom, Michelle McDaniel, “was ruled out in my eyes.”
There were no matches found in CODIS, the national law enforcement DNA database. Investigators were back to square one.
Investigators take a chance on DNA technology
A year after the murder, Chantay’s loved ones and community were desperate for answers. So were investigators.
“I was trying anything I could,” said Brown County Sheriff’s Office Captain Scott Bird. “We were lost.”
Bird heard about a DNA technique called phenotyping. It was one his department had never tried. It uses DNA to predict the way the way a person looks—eye, hair and skin color, face shape, among other things.
It was a new tool in 2017, and many people were skeptical about it. Elisha Bird, an assistant district attorney with the Brown County DA’s office and Scott’s wife, likened it to “science fiction.”
Texas Ranger Jason, who was dedicated to the case, initially was a naysayer as well. “I didn’t believe it would work,” he told Dateline. “This is to a TV show. They can’t do that with DNA.”
But Brown County District Attorney Michael Murray believed a Hail Mary strategy might result in a possible lead. In the end, the investigative team moved forward with phenotyping.
The DNA, along with a $3,600 processing fee, was sent to a Virginia Tech company called Parabond.
Results came back in about five months. The face in the composite image that was generated was a young white man with sandy hair and blue eyes.
No one in Chantay’s family or community recognized the suspect—until her half-brother, Cutter, saw something others didn’t.
He recognized the face of Ryan Riggs, 21, a local member of Chantay’s church who’d been a bully in school.
Ryan had joined in the search for Chantay when she vanished, and he’d attended services in her honor.
“I was mad,” said Chantay’s stepfather, Steven McDaniel. “He was there the whole time and I couldn’t see it.”
Who killed Chantay Blankinship?
Officials rushed to find Riggs, who fled briefly before he returned and confessed to members of the church congregation.
Riggs was brought to the sheriff’s office by the pastor. Riggs told law enforcement that he’d seen Chantay walking the evening she vanished.
He’d offered her a ride in his truck. He told investigators that as they sat together in the truck listening to music, something inside him snapped.
“Out of nowhere,” Riggs said in the recorded interview, “I just put my left arm around her and began to strangle her. When she had passed out, I took her clothes off and I raped her.”
He said he then took her to the abandoned farmhouse and beat her to death with a lawnmower blade that was in his vehicle. He also stomped on her chest, which finally explained the marks that were on her body.
Riggs was charged with capital murder, so the death penalty was on the table. In 2019, Riggs accepted a plea deal that resulted in a life sentence with no chance of parole.
Asked what the first thing that comes to her mind when she thinks about Chantay, her mother said, “Her smile. It doesn’t ever go away. I see her all the time.”
Dateline: Unforgettable airs Thursdays at 8/7c p.m. on Oxygen.
