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Michael Ratcliff and Michael Buchanek were not involved in Sally Blackwell’s murder, it was quietly said in court Friday.
Jeffrey Grimsinger, who pleaded guilty to felony kidnapping and felony murder on Friday, almost whispered, at first, that only he killed Blackwell, a 53-year-old Victoria social worker.
District Attorney Steve Tyler asked the 25-year-old loudly if he acted alone.
“Yes, sir,” Grimsinger said.
Ratcliff and Buchanek were tossed into the Victoria rumor mill during the almost two years since Blackwell’s murder.
Ratcliff is a 49-year-old former sheriff who was indicted in October on charges related to sexual assault of a teenage boy. He lived near Blackwell.
Buchanek is a 55-year-old former sheriff’s captain who dated Blackwell and lived near Blackwell.
An affidavit revealed that bloodhounds followed a scent from the crime scene on Hanselman Road all the way to Buchanek’s Cimarron subdivision home.
Almost immediately, he, too, became a suspect to the public, and a topic of its conversation.
“There’s no evidence they were involved,” Tyler said hours after the hearing. “All the evidence we have is that they were not involved. There is a wealth of evidence to show he acted alone.”
Sheriff T. Michael O’Connor agreed.
“No, we did not have any evidence regarding the ex-sheriff,” O’Connor said.
Through a process of elimination, both Ratcliff and Buchanek were removed as “persons of interest,” O’Connor said. “Collectively, we are satisfied that Grimsinger acted alone.”
As for the bloodhounds that sniffed all the way to Buchanek’s front door, O’Connor said the former sheriff’s captain was in the area days before the murder “and had communicated sociably with Mrs. Blackwell, and the dogs picked the scents up.”
Grimsinger’s scent also was tracked from the crime scene, O’Connor said.
Ratcliff and Buchanek were unavailable for comment on Friday.
Tyler cited his reasons for asking Grimsinger to publicly state that he acted alone.
“Part of the reason for that is there’s been all kinds of rumor and speculation – always by people who didn’t know the facts of the case,” Tyler said. “And I also wanted to put to rest the rumors so the family could move on.”
When Tyler asked Grimsinger why he killed Blackwell, the murderer said, “I don’t know.”
O’Connor hoped for a concrete answer.
“Now, only Mr. Grimsinger and the good Lord himself knows,” O’Connor said.
Gabe Semenza is a reporter for the Advocate.