Missing for Christmas
Beth Ann Ricketts goes missing from Des Moines, Iowa, three days before Christmas in December 1997. The 31-year-old mother is last seen leaving the home she shares with her children to have breakfast with her fiancée. Then she plans to go Christmas shopping. But she never returns. That afternoon there’s a fire at Beth Ann’s apartment, and her bedroom is destroyed. Her fiancée claims that the last time he saw Beth, she was alive and said she just wanted to be on her own for a while. After 25 years, the police assume Beth is dead, but her daughter is still looking for answers to what happened to her mother.
Beth Ann Ricketts disappeared in Des Moines, Iowa on December 22nd, 1997. If you have any information about this case, please contact the CrimeStoppers of Central Iowa at 515-223-1400, leave a tip on their website, or submit a tip at unsolved.com.
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Aubrey
Of all the cases on this podcast, this one seems like most solvable. How the Fiancé has never been arrested or even brought in for questioning in beyond me. I feel like the criminal justice system really failed the family on this one.
roli
why were the kids left alone?
Jennifer
Where is the fiancé now and why he hasn’t been arrested is beyond me. My heart goes out to Beth Ann’s kids. This case is solvable. I pray it does soon. This family needs peace and Beth Ann deserves justice.
Courtney
Pretty shotty police work from the start! Who just cancels a case because someone calls and goes “oh Beth is there and she’s mad!” Terrible. I hope they get justice soon and find the perp who is very obviously Bill.
Bill Blaski
Very cut and dry to me, husband is the perp! Seems like crime committed in the bedroom, then sat on fire and burned up the evidence.
AnaMaria
“Despite all the suspicion circumstances, the police don’t have enough evidence to arrest ______.” That’s all they ever say. You got what you need! More than what others have been convicted on! You’re pathetic! So sick of police letting killers off the hook. Take it to a grand jury, D.A.! You waiting for him to confess? You’re a joke.
Zack C
It blows my mind that somehow the police couldn’t interview the fiancé especially since he was on parole!