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The rumors, all of which contain details that law officers say are not true, connect Ratcliff to the death of CPS program director Sally Blackwell.
Blackwell, 53, was found dead March 15 alongside Hanselman Road. She had been reported missing the previous day after not showing up for work.
An autopsy report indicated she died by strangulation, officials said.
The door to her home in the Cimarron subdivision was unlocked when friends went to check on her March 14.
Ratcliff said that the rumors, which seemed to originate about three weeks ago and have spread throughout the city and beyond, are false.
“There is no substance to any of them,” Ratcliff said.
Sheriff T. Michael O’Connor said, “Ratcliff is not considered a person of interest …
“Our job is to pursue the facts of the case. If we address every rumor that has surfaced since this case began we would exhaust all resources.”
The origins of those rumors against Ratcliff are still unknown. “It is the epitome of the most thoughtless and vicious person in our community,” Ratcliff said.
Ratcliff, sitting inside a conference room at the Advocate on Tuesday afternoon, said when the stories involved his family, he decided to speak out.
“They struck my family and that is why I am here today.”
What made it worse, he said, is that these rumors circulated at a time when he and his father were caring for and ultimately burying his mother.
Ratcliff said he wants to know the origins of the rumors.
“We will meet and I will deal with them as the law provides,” he said, implying civil litigation. “I want to let that person know the personal grief they have caused me and my family.”
Ratcliff originally turned down offers last week to dispel the rumors. “I felt it important to give it time to die down,” Ratcliff said.
But it didn’t.
“These days when I go out into the community, I am besieged with people who care and want to know what is going on.”
Ratcliff said that he has no connection to the case other than that he knew Blackwell from his years of working with her through the sheriff’s office as heads of agencies.
“To my knowledge I have not been declared a person of interest and, again, would not know why.”
No arrests have been made in connection with Blackwell’s death as O’Connor said they are still awaiting forensic results from collected evidence.