In a case that has garnered national attention, the beating, rape and murder of a seven year old child in Canton, GA appeared to have reached its zenith on Thurs., Jan. 19, 2012 when Jorelys Rivera's killer, Ryan Brunn, allegedly committed suicide, according to CBS News. But Ryan Brunn's victims exceeded the child who was murdered in December.
The Canton, GA case, which has been on a high-speed track since the child was first abducted on Dec. 2, has been rife with controversy despite the successful arrest and conviction of a suspect mere days after the little girl disappeared.
And now, the arrest, confession, sentence and death of Ryan Brunn in a little over a month's time is causing the public to take another look at the Jorelys Rivera murder case and the 20-year-old killer who appears to have taken his own life yesterday at approximately 4:15 p.m. And this time, it is apparent that the case against Ryan Brunn has led to more deaths than that of Rivera.
Finger-pointing begins in case
Jorelys Rivera's mother had experienced the removal of her two smaller children during the initial course of the investigation, according to the AJC. Investigators had learned that the state's family and children services department had already been involved with the family previously, due to suspicions of improper child supervision on previous occassions.
The children were later returned to their parents, with no guilt or blame assigned, and all appeared OK, but they were essentially the next victims of Ryan Brunn's abduction of their daughter. And once the suspect was apprehended and details about the investigation began to be leaked, it prompted the murdered child's parents to express dissatisfaction with law enforcement and the investigation that did not result in the safe return of their daughter.
That's essentially when the Cherokee County SO and the Canton PD began to come under fire in the case.
"I have learned how things were going through other people," Jorelys Rivera's father, Ricardo Galarza said.
Blood sighting missed
After Jorelys Rivera went missing on Friday, Dec. 2 at the River Ridge Apartment complex where she lived with her mother and two siblings--and Ryan Brunn worked as a maintenance worker--law enforcement personnel at the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office failed to report a blood sighting in a vacant apartment on the premises during their search, according to the AJC.
It would turn out that the blood was that of the victim, who had been beaten, raped and murdered in the vacant apartment after Ryan Brunn lured her there with the promise of returning her missing roller skate on Friday afternoon, shortly after 5 p.m.
The Cherokee County Sheriff's Office personnel--one seasoned law enforcement officer, one trainee--who failed to report the blood found in the vacant apartment where the crime occurred, became the target of the next finger-pointing in the case.
As one might expect, the sheriff defended his men's failure, citing the lack of supervision and direction by the Canton PD Chief Jeff Lance as the true responsible party. But the deputies serving under Sheriff Garrison's command were officially reprimanded nonetheless. And an agency's officers who had made an error in judgment became Brunn's next victims in this case.
Cherokee County SO blames Canton PD
The Canton Police Department, which was the lead investigative agency in the case, would come under fire for the misstep as a result of Sheriff Roger Garrison's position, according to the AJC, who told the press that the Canton PD failed to establish the lead and call in state authorities for assistance as quickly as they should have--and that his men had no one to really report to that day they saw the blood.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation had been eventually called in to assist in the Jorelys Rivera case--before the blood evidence was disclosed--and it was at the request of the Cherokee County SO, instead of the Canton PD, who would normally make the request if the lead investigators.
Canton PD denies fault
Canton PD Chief Jeff Lance told the AJC that he was unaware of the ability to utilize the Georgia Bureau of Investigations resources for the case and that, initially, it was reported that Jorelys Rivera may have run away due to an argument she had with her mother the night before her disappearance.
Police had been called to the exact same apartment complex two weeks prior for another child disappearance, he said, and it had been a false alarm, with the child hiding behind a dumpster, according to the AJC.
Lance was out of the office during the beginning stage of the missing child case, having scheduled time off to be with his own son. He came under fire for that later, but he told the AJC that he cut that time off short once learning the case wasn't a runaway situation. Thus Lance's extensive career in law enforcement became the next victim in the Ryan Brunn case.
Mayor calls in outside investigator
Neither the GBI, nor the Cherokee County SO or even the Canton PD would solve the Jorelys Rivera case on their own, as a local resident at the Rivers Ridge Apartment complex ultimately helped local law enforcement crack the case, calling in a tip about the maintenance worker that panned out, and giving police a definitive direction in which to look.
And it would be concluded during the GBI autopsy of Jorelys Rivera's body that she died long before the Cherokee County SO officers even found the blood in the vacant apartment.
Canton's Mayor Gene Hobgood felt, however, that an impartial look into the handling of the case was in order to satisfy any complaint or question about the short investigation that led to a suspect's arrest.
He, therefore, according to the AJC on Dec. 29, chose to call in another state law enforcement professional, LaGrange Police Chief Louis Dekmar, to sit in judgment after performing an investigation sanctioned by him.
Investigator points finger of guilt
With Ryan Brunn safely arrested, LaGrange Police Chief Louis Dekmar conducted his investigation into the investigation that led to the 20-year-old confessed killer's incarceration. His fee--$150 per hour--would lead to this conclusion eventually in the case, according to the Cherokee Tribune:
That the Canton PD's investigation into Jorelys Rivera's disappearance was hindered due to a "clear absence of leadership."
Canton PD Chief Jeff Lance resigned on Thur., Jan. 19, 2012 in light of the report's and Dekmar's findings. And he did so mere hours before convicted killer Ryan Brunn would allegedly take his own life from his prison cell at Georgia's Diagnostics and Classification Prison in Jackson, GA.
Ryan Brunn had given a detailed confession about the crime this week, and he had offered the child's family an apology prior to his alleged suicide at Jackson on Thursday afternoon at approximately 4:15 p.m.
In hindsight, Ryan Brunn's murder of Jorelys Rivera was but one death that occurred in this case. Her parents had to deal with the removal of their other children from the home on the heels of her disappearance; law enforcement officers and leaders at two agencies in the state suffered official actions and public scorn nationally--and the killer who successfully ended the life of a child and a career law enforcement officer, would go on to rob the state and Jorelys Rivera's parents of justice too, taking his own life, allegedly.
References: AJC (Jan. 13, Dec. 29), Cherokee Tribune
Comments