What happened to Heidi? A mother tries to heat up cold case
Chico >> What happened to Heidi Ring? It’s a question that has followed her mother, Gretchen Ring, for nearly nine years.
The prospect of knowing the answer to that question elicits tears.
“It would mean that I can die in peace,” Gretchen, 72, of Chico, said. “I want to know what happened to her before I die. I don’t even know why, maybe because I’m her mom, but I need to know.”
Heidi Ring went missing from Chico in the summer of 2005. She was 37 at the time, in and out of homelessness. Her skeletal remains were found seven summers later, in July 2012, in a burn pile at Ord Bend Park near the Sacramento River in Glenn County.
The sheriff at the time suspected that Heidi’s death was the result of a homicide. Exactly how she died, however, remains unknown.
Gretchen recently sat down with the Enterprise-Record to discuss Heidi’s case, which she said is “so cold it’s buried under a 2,000-ton glacier.” She is scheduled to speak at an upcoming missing persons conference starting Thursday in North Carolina, where advocacy groups, law enforcement and affected families gather. Gretchen said she hopes her story can help someone else, and, perhaps, unearth the answer she’s been looking for.
Gretchen Ring painted a portrait of her daughter that revealed the contrasts of Heidi’s life.
Heidi had a warm heart and helped people regularly. She was also bratty and hard to be around, her mother said.
Heidi suffered from mental and physical problems and was rarely happy. She was often ill and in pain, suffering from migraines, seizures and depression. She spoke her mind loudly. She was adorable and imagined herself, playfully, as royalty. When Heidi was 3, she asked her mom, “How do you get to be queen?”
She was hard to raise. Her siblings, an older sister and younger brother, would try to avoid her. Heidi’s last address was her brother’s residence. She was a self-taught gemologist and particularly enjoyed blues music. Heidi smoked marijuana. Then, before she went missing, she was known to be using harder drugs.
Heidi put on a tough persona, but “she was like a scared little girl inside,” her mother said, adding, “It was just hard to be Heidi, and it was hard to be her family, too.”
In June 2005, Gretchen Ring noticed that she hadn’t spoken to her daughter in some time. Heidi’s siblings, Mike and Barbara, also hadn’t heard from her, Gretchen said.
“We thought, well, that’s weird,” she said, “because even with all her problems she always kept very close contact with the family.”
Gretchen said family members, pictures in hand, searched Heidi’s haunts, area shelters and other places. “A lot of people recognized her and said, oh yeah, I saw her last week at the wherever,” Gretchen said. “And, oh yeah, I saw her a couple of days ago at Duffy’s or somewhere.”
It was a few days later when family members received a possible sign from Heidi.
“We heard through the hobo network — I think you would call it — that Heidi was OK,” Gretchen said. “She was mad at the family. She wasn’t going to contact us anytime soon. That she was with a friend about an hour and a half from Chico. She was mad that we were looking for her.”
This irritated the Ring family. Heidi may have known she was being sought and intentionally kept them at bay. Gretchen said, “We kind of looked at each other and then we were kind of disgusted like, I mean, we’re working our butts off trying to find her and you know she’s — well she’s who she is.”
The next plan of action was to stake out Heidi’s brother’s mailbox west of Chico, where Heidi’s disability checks were mailed. She didn’t show to collect her money. Gretchen said a missing person report was filed with Chico police on June 19, 2005.
The Ring family also turned to private investigator Louis Parker for help. Parker, 84, of Chico, told this newspaper that posters of Heidi went out across the north state, and his search took him all over Northern California.
Many tips and leads he’d gathered “turned into puff and smoke,” Parker said. He would show people pictures of Heidi, who had long brown hair, hazel eyes and a wide smile, on his hunt. “You know, everybody saw her, but nobody really did.”
During his search, one tip seemed especially promising. He got word that Heidi may have been picked up by a Caltrans worker east of Redding and taken to a bus stop, with the intent to head to Portland.
Parker said he and an associate got in a car and rode on to Oregon, nearly reaching Eugene. After talking to local authorities, a lead, once again, chilled. There was no sign of her.
According to an Enterprise-Record article published in 2012 — after Heidi’s remains were recovered but had not yet been identified — Chico police said they hadn’t uncovered anything concrete in the seven-year missing person case, which was unusual for a woman said to be living on the street.
Heidi’s remains were found adjacent to a boat ramp at Ord Bend Park in July 2012, and they were identified as hers in October of that year.
While the Glenn County Sheriff’s Office initially suspected homicide, Jim Mikkelson, 67, an investigator who works with Parker, said that’s currently a “best-guess scenario” of what happened. Other scenarios that wouldn’t involve foul play are also possible.
“They called it a homicide, but there’s no supportive evidence,” Mikkelson said. He added, however, “If ever there was a person ripe for a crime of opportunity it would have been Heidi at that point in time.”
Heidi’s situation wasn’t unique, Gretchen Ring said.
“There’s a huge group of people in Heidi’s position,” she said, adding, “And they end up on the streets and they are such easy victims.”
Gretchen conceded there are no easy solutions to homelessness. What may work for one person may not work for another, she says, but “that means we just have to find a different kind of help for that person.”
Gretchen said she recently moved back to Chico after 23 years and has noticed good things happening. She noted Stairways Programming, which has collaborated with Chico police to help get people off the streets and into service programs.
Other challenges remain, Gretchen said, citing area shelters that have struggled financially or closed early. For her part, she said plans to help out more at the Jesus Center on Park Avenue.
“I don’t get how people don’t get they are us, and we are them,” Gretchen said. “It’s your brother, it’s your father, it’s your sister, it’s you. How would you want to be treated?”
Gretchen Ring has been asked to speak at the National Missing Persons Conference in Wilmington, North Carolina, this week. The three-day conference, sponsored by the Community United Effort Center for Missing Persons features advocacy groups for missing people, homicide victims and families.
“The event is open to all who support the mission of finding a resolution for families who have suffered a missing loved one and are or have been a victim of crime,” according to the conference’s website.
There, Gretchen says she’ll tell Heidi’s story.
“Maybe,” Gretchen said. “Maybe I can help someone out, somehow, with their journey in this unforgiving landscape of pain that families are in.”
Maybe, by sharing Heidi’s story, the Rings will find their answer, too.
http://www.orovillemr.com/article/NB/20160313/NEWS/160319906