(MUNCIE) – The Delaware County Sheriff’s Department has completed its investigation into a double murder-suicide.
Police responded to a Muncie home on April 28th and found three people dead inside.
Police say 58-year-old Casey Ritchie killed his 14-year-old daughter Rylee Ritchie and her mother, 45-year-old Denise Miles, and then took his own life.
Prosecutor Eric Hoffman says the deaths have been ruled homicides.
Rylee Ritchie died from two gunshot wounds to her chest. Her mother was shot twice in the back.
Casey Ritchie then turned the gun on himself and died from a self-inflected gunshot wound to the head.
“They were victims in this case,” he added.
Hoffman would not comment on Casey Ritchie’s motive.
Two wrongful death lawsuits have been filed against the estate of Casey Ritchie.
The suits were filed in June in Delaware Circuit Court 5 by Brandi Ritchie – appointed as personal representative of the estates of her mother, Denise E. Miles, and her younger sister Rylee Nicole Ritchie – against the estate of her father, Casey L. Ritchie.
Brandi Ritchie’s lawsuits, filed by Muncie Attorney Jason Delk, claims Miles was fatally shot “on or about” April 25, while the deaths of Rylee and Casey Ritchie took place “on or about” April 28.
The suit suggests before being killed, the teenager was “falsely imprisoned and abused” by her father, apparently in the wake of her mother’s slaying.
That lawsuit cites “survival claims” on behalf of Rylee Ritchie’s estate due to her father’s alleged “unlawful and tortious conduct,” and well as in compensation for the girl’s “wrongful death.”
The other suit seeks damages for Denise Miles’ death, and “the damages Brandi Ritchie has sustained due to the loss of love and affection of her mother.”
Kathy Clary, sister of Casey Ritchie, is named as a defendant in the suits as a “personal representative” of his estate.
