Woman Accused of Stalking Ex-Lover in Months Before He Was Slain

In a case reminiscent of the movie “Fatal Attraction,” a former San Diego State University student has been charged with stalking her ex-lover for months, renting an apartment next to his, and then shooting him to death when he refused to rekindle their affair.

Linda Elizabeth Ricchio, 27, was obsessed with her broken relationship with Ronald Lewis Ruse Jr. and planned to commit suicide after killing Ruse outside his Carlsbad apartment, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Lux.

“She just could not accept their breakup,” Lux said.

Ricchio allegedly fired five shots at Ruse from a newly purchased .38-caliber revolver shortly after he entered his apartment with a six-pack of beer and some sandwiches about 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 14.

Investigators believe that the 28-year-old Ruse, a car mechanic and sports fan, was preparing to watch Monday Night Football when Ricchio surprised him. There were no witnesses to the shooting.

Only a few days earlier Ricchio had rented the two-bedroom apartment next to Ruse, reportedly prompting Ruse’s new girlfriend to move out in fear.

Authorities found in her car what they say was a suicide note and will addressed to a relative. In it, Ricchio wrote:

“Life itself has always been difficult for me as long as I can recall. I never enjoyed it or felt like being here . . . Unfortunately my relationship with Ron weighed just too heavy to have to accept and deal with for another X number of years. That’s it.”

On Nov. 13, Ruse obtained a restraining order from Vista Superior Court Judge Lawrence Kapiloff ordering Ricchio to stop harassing Ruse and his new girlfriend and to not come within 100 yards of their residence or job sites.

“She continually calls me at all hours of the day and night,” Ruse wrote in his plea to the court for help. “She shows up at my apartment and demands to come in. I

have told her that I no longer want to see her. Today (Oct. 28), she showed up at my place of work and verbally harassed me in front of fellow workers and my supervisor.

“This is the second time in a week she has appeared at my workplace. My job is now in jeopardy.”

Ricchio, in turn, denied ever harassing Ruse.

“My sole intent,” she wrote the court, “never included willful or knowingly malicious actions or conduct, but purely harmless heartfelt and deserving attempts to communicate, to help me understand. The emotional stress and turmoil has exhausted me.”

She said the two had lived together in Vista from December, 1980, to April, 1986, when they decided to separate and date other people.

“My only fault is being in love with Ron, being in love with a man who has a difficult time with himself involving the emotion,” she wrote to the court.

Ruse, whose parents live in Escondido, had been the lead used-car mechanic at Toyota of Carlsbad for five years. He enjoyed softball and rock music.

“Ron had life nice and easy until this girlfriend started after him and wouldn’t let up,” said John Quinn, used-car manager at the dealership. “He was in perpetual turmoil after that. Twice she came to the store yelling and screaming and putting Ron through hell.”

Despite Ruse’s assertions to the court, Quinn said Ruse was never in danger of losing his job.

“No way,” Quinn said. “We were all behind him. He never let this turmoil hurt his performance on the job. This woman was just way out. Her actions were not those of somebody who is happy with life. Ron just wanted to be rid of her but she wouldn’t let him.”

Ruse was struck by two bullets and died of massive chest, back and abdomen wounds after being taken by Life Flight helicopter to Palomar Medical Center.

Less than 10 minutes after the shooting, Ricchio made a 911 emergency call to Oceanside police and told them she wanted to turn herself in for shooting someone. She was booked and later charged with murder.

Found Revolver

Police found a .38-caliber revolver in her automobile. An Oceanside police report quotes Ricchio as saying: “I just hope Ron’s OK. My parents raised me better than this.”

Just days before the shooting, Ricchio rented a $695 a-month, two-bedroom apartment next to Ruse--in apparent violation of the court order. The rental agent remembers that Ricchio was so anxious to rent the apartment that she did not take time to read the rental agreement.

“She seemed very intelligent, very sharp, and very intent on getting that particular apartment,” said Mike Chamberlain, whose property management firm handles the apartment complex at 2657 Jefferson St.

“She signed so fast, I couldn’t believe it,” Chamberlain said. “I told her to read it over because it’s a legal document. She said she didn’t have to, that she knew what she wanted.”

Chamberlain said Ricchio told him she graduated with a straight-A average from California State University, Long Beach, although administrators in the student records division there could find no record of her.

Unemployed at Time

Lux said investigators have determined that Ricchio attended SDSU, in hopes of becoming a photojournalist, but did not graduate. She was unemployed at the time of the slaying.

Ricchio’s mother and stepfather live in Vista. Her natural father, Joseph Ricchio, is a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to her attorney.

Looking disheveled and depressed, Ricchio appeared briefly in court Tuesday as her court-appointed attorney, public defender Raymond Caine, unsuccessfully sought an order setting bail.

She was returned to the Las Colinas women’s jail in Santee to await a readiness hearing on Jan. 18 and a preliminary hearing on Feb. 16.

Caine said he plans to have his client examined by psychiatrists and psychologists before deciding how to proceed with her case.

“I don’t think there’s any question that there was a shooting and she was there,” Caine said. “After all, she turned herself into police almost immediately. Just what circumstances may have caused her actions, just what happened outside the apartment, is still unknown to me. This is a very troubled girl.”

In her letter to the court saying that a restraining order was unwarranted, Ricchio contended that she had been impregnated by Ruse in 1981 and 1986, with both pregnancies ending in abortion. She added that she believed she might be pregnant again by him.

“She maintained to friends and relatives that was pregnant by him, but that proved not to be true,” prosecutor Lux said.

Investigators have been told that Ricchio threatened suicide after her breakup with Ruse in 1986. Caine said Ricchio’s mother had worried recently that her daughter was again considering suicide.

Like others involved in the case, Lux noted the similarity between the allegations against Ricchio and the movie “Fatal Attraction,” in which a woman stalks a former lover until the two engage in a bloody confrontation.

“I’ve never had a case like this before,” Lux said.

Police Were Warned

Carlsbad police detective Bob Gilliam said that police had been warned by Ricchio’s mother on Dec. 7 that Ricchio had purchased a gun.

Police were familiar with the Ricchio-Ruse case because of the restraining order and allegations by Ruse’s new girlfriend that Ricchio had vandalized her car, requiring a new paint job.

“It was one of those cases where we were damned if we do, damned if we don’t,” Gilliam said. “We had absolutely no authority or right to contact Ricchio about a lawful purchase (of a gun).”

Gilliam said investigators believe Ricchio was methodical in her attack and that Ruse may have been attempting to flee down the stairs from his second-story apartment when he was shot.

“This was a cold, cold, calculated attack,” Gilliam said. “It was planned out well in advance. She knew exactly how she was going to attack Mr. Ruse. She bought a gun and then had someone teach her how to use it.”

Like Lux, Gilliam said he has never seen a similar case.

“I’ve never seen a case where a woman, or half of a relationship, is so obsessed with getting even, with evening up the score, with getting back at a former lover, as this one,” he said.

Outside court Tuesday, Ricchio’s mother, Mary Cate, told reporters that her daughter was a troubled person.