Original subtitles

[man] This thing inside of me, it's like...

...the appetite.

It's like a wolf that's...

...feeling the hunger.

[male reporter] This is where the Brown County Sheriff's Department

found the body of Rhonda Chantay Blankinship

on County Road 424.

They're calling her death a homicide.

[female reporter] Blankinship died from a crushed larynx,

then blunt force injuries to her neck, face, and torso.

Sheriff Vance Hill says some of those injuries were caused

by a lawn mower blade found near her body.

[male reporter] Brown County Law Enforcement arrested

21-year-old Ryan Riggs for capital murder.

The break in the case came when the sheriff's office released a computerized sketch

of Riggs using his DNA.

Blankinship and Riggs went to the same church.

[male reporter] Pastor Keener says Riggs then went before the entire congregation

and confessed to killing fellow church member, Chantay Blankinship

before turning himself in.

[Pastor Keener] He said, "I need to confess something."

And in that confession, he, uh,

he said, "I've done something real bad. I murdered her."

He says that he's killed Chantay, but there's no real emotion,

there's nothing in his body language that suggests

that he's experiencing any real stress.

He's not shaking, he's not showing any outward or visible signs of stress.

He's somewhat matter-of-fact about the whole thing.

And those are some of the indications that start to suggest

that there is a psychopathic presence.

He's owning that

he has strong impulses to do things that

he's told he shouldn't do, it invokes Satan.

It feels evil to him. It comes to him very naturally.

And so that's what's interesting about him.

He's aware of these feelings that he has,

these urges that he has

to do things that he knows aren't right,

but it bothers him that it doesn't bother him.

The way that Riggs hangs out with Chantay

and describes that they're sitting in the car,

they're flirting, they're listening to music...

There is an element of manipulation in this,

that he is basically trying to pull her in

and, and get her to feel comfortable.

It is an effort to disarm her,

so that ultimately he'll have greater control and power over her.

What he chose to do was harm her, torture her,

drag her off, and then bludgeon her,

and all of those indications suggest somebody

who's got paraphilic interests.

Paraphilias are deviant sexual interests.

What we're talking about is an individual who gets sexually aroused

by creating harm and fear in their victims.

The nonconsensual component of that sexual activity

is the point of arousal.

This is an example of his sadistic tendencies and desires.

He is going above and beyond.

At this point, she's presumably already dead,

which is a very personal action to take, and full of rage,

so it's an enhanced level of sadism

that he is getting some sort of pleasure

out of being so violent with her.

Riggs may have been keeping the shoes

because, functionally, they were nice shoes,

but more likely, he kept them as a trophy.

He kept them as a reminder of the crime and what he had done.

And the dubious part about it is that

they were hidden in plain sight.

They were part of the weapons used in this crime that harmed her.

And ultimately, nobody at that point suspected

that he had anything to do with Chantay's disappearance,

much less her rape and her murder.

And to walk around with those shoes on

for some time after she was killed and found

really does start to speak to someone who is reliving it.

[Dr. Daniel Mundy] His victim selection is really important to his MO.

He's keeping it close to home.

He very easily could've gone

somewhere else to find a victim

in a different community and then just come back.

Part of targeting her is...

...because her absence will be noted,

that's doing something for him.

It calls to mind, like, the,

the arsonist who goes to watch the fire, in a way.

[Dr. Chriscelyn Tussey] Individuals who are psychopaths

purposely target the weaker and the more vulnerable

because they can be easy targets.

He viewed her as an easy target because of her size

and her cognitive limitations.

And it's an opportunity for him to take control,

exact his will and desires,

and not have to fight too hard for it.

[Dr. Mundy] He's saying, "It's evil in me." But it's, it's him.

When he says nothing's going through his mind,

I don't think that's actually how it's happening. I don't think he's lying,

but I think he has a hard time

kind of tapping into the part of his brain that feels

just very natural doing these things

that seem so unnatural to most people.

So Riggs' decision to confess

was not because he was overcome by guilt.

It's not because he was overcome by regret or remorse

for what he'd done to another human being.

It's because he knew that he was going to be found.

It may have been his attempt to remain in control of the narrative,

which is, "I'm a good person who did a bad thing,

and I have all this remorse and regret."

[Dr. Tussey] Hard to say about his expression of suicidality

if he genuinely had been suicidal

or if he's saying it in order to garner sympathy

and perhaps impact the outcome of his case,

or maybe it's a little bit of both,

but his other actions and statements

throughout this interview and in the records

do not paint the picture of someone

who is riddled with grief

and remorse over his actions.

[Dr. Tussey] This is an early red flag

for future violent behavior, even sadistic behavior.

Individuals who hurt

those that are more vulnerable to them,

whether we're talking about an animal or a human being,

are people who tend to be particularly callous

and not have the same respect for humanity

that the majority of society does.

So this small animal was another easy victim for him.

[Dr. Mundy] When we get into drug use

and drug experimentation,

we're in that novelty seeking realm.

One of the features with psychopathy

can be just increased stimulation needs.

That, they, they need something new,

they need something stimulating, exciting,

and that can frequently be drugs,

it can be a lot of other things,

but we're seeing that in his own description.

[Dr. Nameeta Sahni] Psychopathic individuals are difficult to spot,

often times because they're highly motivated to manipulate people

and to become what we call chameleon-like.

They know how to mimic just the surface

of typical human behaviors and emotions.

Riggs was someone who blended in to the community.

The sheer fact that he went undetected as long as he did

speaks to his willingness and ability

to manipulate others and to pretend.

[male reporter] Why'd it take you a year and a half

to confess, Mr. Riggs?

Why'd it take you 18 months to confess?