Pat Ritter. Books

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'Dream Angel' - Page 51:
Not being satisfied with the damage to his neighbour’s shed he went to a storeroom of a shoe shop in town. The rear door was open and he walked inside. Near the back wall of the shop he saw empty cardboard shoeboxes discarded by the storeowner. He piled the shoeboxes into a heap close to the back wall of the shop and was about to strike a match to set fire to the boxes when the owner entered the storeroom and stopped him.
Until this day I’d never investigated arson. Most investigations were common sense once you knew the type of questions to ask. Important questions like, how, when, where, why, intent to commit the crime just about covered most. In this case I interviewed him in the presence of his mother and asked questions and recorded them in a typewritten ‘Record of Interview’. One question I asked, ‘Why did you want to set fire to the shoe boxes?’
‘I don’t know.’ Was his reply.
I arrested and charged him with arson to his neighbour’s shed and attempted arson to shoeboxes at the owner’s store. If he had successfully set fire to the shoeboxes, the fire no doubt would have destroyed the whole of the main shopping centre of the town. It was lucky the owner of the shop stopped him before he struck the match to start the fire. I thought I had done a great investigation and arrested a person for ‘arson’ which he could be sent to prison for life.
It was late when we returned home. As promised, we went to Chief’s home and told him about the investigation and the arrest. I was tickled ‘pink’ with my first investigation. I left a copy of the ‘Record of Interview’ with him proud to show him what I’d done.
The next morning, I felt on top of the world and couldn’t wait until I got to work. Chief wanted to speak with me in his office.
He’s probably going to tell me I did a good job, I though when I entered his office...

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'Dream Angel' - Page 53:
Three days had past since her murder. Detectives were no closer to finding the murderer.
Graham, my forensic scientist friend once told me the first three days of any investigation were the most crucial, also when investigating a serious crime always look close by to where the crime was committed for the offender because they were not going to travel half way around the world to murder anyone.
This murder happened in Toowoomba, Chief and I joined twenty other detectives in the investigation. She’d been dead for about twelve hours before her body was discovered. We looked at photographs of the dead woman and looked for any irregularities to place any person at the scene of the crime.
A ‘Running Sheet’, which recorded each detail of the investigation, was in its third day. It was imperative to record each detail of an investigation as it happened by typing information directly onto the ‘Running Sheet’. This practise gave the detectives a running commentary of each event.
Chief read the ‘Running Sheet’. He called me over to join him and said, ‘we can’t work together on this one because either of us know the town or the people. I’m paired off with one of the local detectives and you will work with one of the senior ones. I’ve read over the ‘Running Sheet’ and found this fellow’s name. I arrested him for child molestation a couple of years ago. He must have recently been released from prison. Try and find him.’ He pointed to the name of the person for me to make a mental note.
I was paired off with a senior detective. It was chaos with detectives airing their own versions of ‘what they thought’ happened instead of looking for a motive substantiated evidence to find the murderer. I wanted to know my own version from the senior detective who worked on the investigation since it began.
We returned to the scene of the crime and re-constructed the crime scene to try and determine ‘how the elderly lady was murdered’. The motive for the murder was ‘robbery’ because money was stolen from the cash register inside of the shop. The total amount taken wasn’t known because the only person who knew the amount was now dead...

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'Dream Angel' - Page 54:
A search of her home recovered $80,000.00 in bank notes located beneath the mattress in her bedroom. The killer didn’t know about the money otherwise the police would never have found it. It was a mystery but the major focus was to solve the murder. I looked at the floor where the dead lady was found, bloodstains still apparent on the floor. ‘Where are the bloodstains from?’ I said to the senior detective.
‘We’re not certain. We found the woman had a puncture wound to her right hand in between her thumb and index finger’. He pointed to the area on his own hand. ‘That’s where we think the blood came from. It appeared the webbing of her skin was punctured’. He said.
‘How was she strangled?’ I asked.
‘A cord from the light switch in the lounge room was cut.’ I looked to the ceiling of the roof and saw the light cord severed.
‘What happened to the cord?’ I asked.
‘It was still around the woman’s neck when we found her. She had a busted sternum as if she’d been punched and the back of her head was covered in blood. There’s some blood on the toilet bowl.’
It was a puzzle. Nothing at the crime scene shouted out any messages to identify any person. Fingerprint evidence had shown nothing. There was only one piece of evidence, which could lead to the murderer ‘there was cat hair throughout the house’. The elderly lady loved cats particularly ‘Persian cats’.
I mentioned the person Chief told me about. He didn’t know him but we intended to track him down to have a chat about his movements on the previous Saturday night...

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'Dream Angel' - Page 55:

I didn’t know if it was either coincidence or plain good police work but between the two of us, we found out where this person lived. He lived in a house around the corner not far from the store.
Graham, my forensic scientist friend could be right about the murderer living nearby I thought when we parked the police car in front of the house. At the same time another police car parked beside us who wanted to know ‘why’ we were at the house.
‘We are following a lead and think the murderer could live here’. I said.
‘We heard about a fellow in the hotel who shouted the bar last night and paid for drinks with fifty cents coins. We have him here in the car and he tells us he lives here’. We entered the house with the man.
Thank goodness I’d done my time in the ‘Drug Squad’ in the city and knew how to search. In a bedroom I removed the mattress on the bed and folded it back. Beneath the bed was a travelling bag. I picked it up and placed it onto the bed and said to the man standing beside me, ‘this your bag?’ He nodded in a gesture to acknowledge it was his bag. He was the owner of the house who’d been bought by the other detectives. I unzipped the bag and looked inside. I saw fifty-cent pieces, ‘Are these your fifty cent pieces?’ I said.
‘Yes, my wife and I have been saving them for our child.’ He replied.
‘How long have you been saving?’ I said.
‘About four months.’
‘I’ve been married for four years and I can’t save as much.’ I said.
He came with us to the Toowoomba Police Station. Before we left the house, we took clothes from the clothesline with what looked to have ‘hair’ on a pair of socks. I remembered at the crime scene there was ‘lots’ of cat’s hair...

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'Dream Angel' - Page 56:
By the time we reached the office most of the detectives were aware a man was held for questioning. Unfortunately, currently there was little evidence to connect him with the murder. All detectives were paired off to interrogate the person. I wasn’t included in the pairing because it was thought I didn’t have enough experience.
Chief saw me bring the man to the office, ‘Good on yah Tex. That’s the fellow I told you about.’ He nodded to the man as he walked past.
Hours of interrogation took place but there was no evidence to connect the man with the murder scene, they might need to release him. Graham, my forensic friend was contacted to help with the murder investigation. If there was anyone who could help solve this case then it was, he.
All through the day the man denied he killed the elderly woman. Detectives continued their interrogation until he said he wanted to speak with the Chief who walked into the office.
Meanwhile I went with Graham and returned to the crime scene. I wanted to watch a master at work; how he examined the scene microscopically for any evidence. He took samples of ‘cat hair’.
We returned to the office he tested the ‘cat hair’ and compared it to the ‘cat hair’ found on the pair of socks taken from the man’s house. It matched.
Chief finalised his questioning of the man who admitted he murdered the elderly lady and arrested him for murder.
On our way home to Dalby he told me the whole story of what happened. I couldn’t have placed him on a higher a pedestal if I wanted to. How lucky was I to have this person as my Chief? It was at this moment I understood how important it was to know the law and be able to competently administer it. He explained the murderer went to the elderly lady’s shop about eight o’clock on Saturday night with the purpose to take money from the cash register. He wore socks over both hands...

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'Dream Angel' - Page 57:

She was seated at the kitchen table. He walked up the back stairs and past her and she had her back to him. He walked into the shop to the cash register. It was closed. He pressed one of the keys. The cash draw opened. When the cash draw opened it made a loud noise like a ‘ding’. He looked around and saw the old lady standing at the doorway. She identified him and called him by his name.
He swung around and punched her in the sternum with enough force to cause her to fall backward. The toilet door was open. She struck the back of her head on the toilet bowl and landed on the floor of the toilet and sat in an upright position. He thought she was dead.
He emptied the cash register of all the money and placed the money into a carrying bag. When he was about to leave, he heard her moan and groan. She wasn’t dead and was still able to identify him once she’d recovered; his intention was then to murder her.
He walked over to her and wrapped his arms around the middle of her waist. He held her frail body and lifted it into an upright position. She was standing upright. She came to life and swung her arms around his waist. Her right hand swung around the killer’s waist and the webbing between her thumb and fore finger embedded into a knife blade protruded from the back pocket of his trousers. Blood gushed from her wound and spurted and sprayed over the floor. At this point the murderer dropped her to the floor. He took the knife from his back pocket and cut the light cord hanging above his head.
He wrapped the cord around her neck and pulled it tight round her throat. It didn’t work. He loosened the cord and moved it closer to the middle of her throat. He tightened the cord and listened for her last gasp of breath come from her mouth. After he could no longer hear any more gasps, he dropped her to the floor. Before he left, he dragged her into her bedroom and left her lying on the floor. She was dead...

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'Dream Angel' - Page 58:

We returned to Dalby at daylight. It was twenty-two hours since we left. In over two days I realised why I wanted to become a detective. Not all investigations would be as intense as this one but to find the murderer and know the full details of the investigation, completed the picture. I felt great and tied.
The murderer pleaded ‘guilty’ which was uncommon and he received the maximum penalty of ‘Life Imprisonment’. I was pleased to work with one of the greatest detectives in the Queensland Police Force and have him as my ‘Chief’.
In two months, I received my designation as a detective. It was my dream and never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine the thrill and reward it gave me to be a designated detective. No one could take it away from me. I would be now known as Detective Constable 1/c Thomas Patrick Ritter. It was another step in the ladder of success I had to take to reach the top.
The other designated detective and I were of similar age. He began his police career after he left school and became a police cadet. You would never have known but if I’d been allowed to join the police when I wanted to and become a police officer cadet, I would have no doubt met him sooner. I was a mature aged joiner at twenty-one years.
My respect for him was paramount; he knew far more than did I and I appreciated his style when he told me I was doing wrong. He never told me at the time when I made the mistake, only afterwards when I realised my mistake and wanted to know why he didn’t tell me. He remarked, ‘How are you going to learn if you don’t make mistakes. You learn from your mistakes. Don’t you.’ Darryl said.
‘I must be an expert if you learn from your mistakes because I make plenty of them.’ I replied with tongue in cheek.
We investigated an assault and robbery of a male person behind a hotel at Chinchilla. A young man was coaxed from the public bar by two fellows on the pretence they had a girl for him. Their names were Brown and Black...

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