Youngstown teen arrested in girl's death
AUSTINTOWN TWP, Ohio — A Youngstown teenager is jailed on charges he abducted and killed a 16-year-old girl before dumping her body in trash that turned up days later at a waste disposal site near the Mercer-Butler County line.
U.S. Marshals on Tuesday arrested Ricki D. Williams IV, 18, who is accused of fatally stabbing Gina Bacher Burger at the Compass West apartment complex in suburban Youngstown, where she had recently moved.
Burger, who lived with her mother and older sister, was reported missing June 23. Two days later and 40 miles away, workers at Tri-County Industries in Pine Township, Mercer County, discovered her body at their waste transfer station.
Ohio authorities believe Williams killed the girl at Compass West the night she disappeared and then disposed of her body at the same apartment building.
Trucks for Tri-County Industries haul trash from Compass West and other parts of Austintown and Youngstown to the Mercer County dumpsite, authorities said.
Burger died of a single stab wound to the chest, according to Mercer County Coroner J. Bradley McGonigle III.
Investigators said Burger about 8 p.m. June 23 had gone to a downstairs neighbor's apartment to get tea bags when she turned up missing.
She was returning to her apartment when Williams allegedly accosted the girl, police said.
Austintown Police Chief Robert Gavalier described Williams as “semi-homeless.” He said the defendant recently had been staying with friends.
Police believe that in the two weeks before Burger's death, Williams had been showing up at Compass West to visit a woman who lives there.
“Our department warned him to stay off,” Gavalier said. That warning came only days before the killing.
Investigators suspect Williams forced Burger to another apartment at the complex, where he killed her.“We found the crime scene Monday,” Gavalier said. But he would not say what led them there.Inside that apartment, police found “a good amount of blood,” he said.After killing Burger, the suspect took the body to a Dumpster at the complex. Gavalier said he does not believe Burger was sexually assaulted.Police did not rule out that Williams could have had help in disposing of the body and possibly the killing. He would not say if police have any other suspects in the case.Police have not recovered the suspected murder weapon.Agents with the U.S. Marshals fugitive task force arrested Williams about 6 p.m. Tuesday on Youngstown's West Side, two or three miles from Compass West.The defendant denied killing Burger, police said. Detectives questioned him before he asked for an attorney.Gavalier said the suspect appeared “very calm and cool” while in police custody.A motive in the killing is not known. “That's one thing we do not have,” Gavalier said.Burger in January moved from Texas to Austintown and was to begin the 11th grade at her new high school in the fall, family said. Funeral services as of Tuesday were still pending.
