COLUMN: Who Killed Kate? | Retired UA Librarian's Murder Remains An Enigma

*This is an opinion column*

"There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness"

- Herman Melville, "Moby Dick"

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Eleanor Streit stood back as her husband Ed went through the back door of their friend Kate Ragsdale's home after not hearing from her for several days and noticing a pile of newspapers gathering out front.

"The door was ajar and she never let her dog out if she wasn't at home," Eleanor told me. "Ed went in and turned right calling her name, then he went left into the bedroom and saw her. He has common sense, so he didn't touch her and came out and told me to call the police because 'there's a crazy person somewhere.'"

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INTRODUCTION

Kate Ragsdale was a thoughtful and meticulous woman.

Called "dignified but with a great sense of humor" by Eleanor Streit, the 73-year-old had a refrigerator that was precisely organized like a bookshelf and everything in her tidy home had its own appointed place.

Ragsdale was so detail-oriented from her decades as a librarian that she reportedly kept the warranty card for a surge projector in a filing cabinet in her home in The Highlands — an "Old Tuscaloosa" neighborhood of well-to-do movers and shakers in the community.

And 12 years to the day since Ragsdale's body was found on the floor of her bedroom, that same ransacked filing cabinet remains behind lock and key in evidence at the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office. It's damn near impossible to know what could have been snatched from its contents considering no one other than Ragsdale knew what was in it before she was murdered.

Depending on who you ask, the filing cabinet is a piece of evidence that could hold the key to solving the murder or prove an unwieldy red herring that's doing nothing but taking up space and attention away from more important clues.

It doesn't take a forensics expert to deduce that Ragsdale's killer is either dead or still walking the streets today — no closer to justice as the case continues to sap energy and occupy more head space among investigators past and present than could ever fit into this column.

A colorful spectrum of potential scenarios have made their rounds in public discourse over the years, running the gamut from a random act of psychotic brutality, a violent crime of passion or a complex cover-up by the University of Alabama. They're theories that, on their face and with current evidence, are far too shaky to explain why a mild-mannered librarian was tortured and murdered in the way that she was.

Not to mention a clear lack of a motive anyone has been able to establish with any kind of certainty.

"Cases like this are odd cases," said Captain Jack Kennedy, commander of the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit, who is heading up the cold case investigation into Ragsdale's murder. "And people do talk about these kinds of cases. But I'm cautiously optimistic. I've devoted a large part of my time to it here lately and have had a few minor successes."

As the anniversary of Ragsdale's murder approached, this reporter — who has put off writing about this case to the point that I deliberately passed on the 10-year anniversary a couple years ago — decided enough time had passed to dig into this story properly in the hopes of making enough noise to move things forward.

So, let's get my hesitancy and potential conflict of interest out of the way.

'What You Know & What You Can Prove'

I sipped coffee sitting in an armchair as retired Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit Commander Dale Phillips, wearing a T-shirt and flannel pajama pants, recreated the Kate Ragsdale crime scene in his living room.

He's a second generation cop and was raised by a keen-shooting mother who retired as a captain from the Bryce Hospital Police force. One of his favorite phrases as it relates to investigative work is "what you know and what you can prove are two different things."

I admit, this a bizarre scene without context.

But Dale Phillips, whether he likes it or not, is my Dad and was the first lead investigator on Kate Ragsdale's murder, along with his partner — a thoughtful and sharp-minded Tuscaloosa Police officer named Kip Hart.

Dad isn't quite 60 years old yet but has been retired for a while now and in years past I've groaned every time I thought about writing an update on this case, solely for the potential of a perceived conflict of interest such a story might generate. But I chalk it up as a symptom of reporting on my hometown and if anything, I consider it a personal challenge to show my readers and community I can be trusted with such a delicate subject.

To drive this point home: when I was an unpaid contributing writer at the University of Alabama's student newspaper, the Crimson White, I reported on the unsolved murder on the one-year anniversary and interviewed Kip Hart on Ragsdale's front lawn instead of my Dad because my ethics have always been so central to my craft.

Dad was the tip of the spear, though, and you don't have to take my word for it.

An account of that press conference in the Tuscaloosa News said: "[Dale] Phillips knows where every drop of blood fell, the way her body was positioned and the placement of the murder weapon. He knows everyone Ragsdale called, every penny she spent and everywhere she went in the days leading up to her death."

In the present, Dale Phillips paced around his living room in his sock feet, not as my Dad, but as a qualified source with an impressive ability for recall, and physically demonstrated how he and Kip Hart first analyzed Ragsdale's body after she was found by neighbors.

He spoke at length about Hart's clever initial interpretation of the blood spatter while the pair stood over the body — his favorite story about the skills of another investigator I can almost recite from memory — as they tried to make sense of a body positioned on its side and covered up.

This latter fact, even to a criminology hobbyist with a podcast education, is agreed upon by experts to indicate a high likelihood that the person responsible for killing Ragsdale knew her personally and didn't want to look upon their fatal handiwork after the fact.

Indeed, one former investigator who worked the case mentioned that at the very least, the composition of the scene reflected the killer's "shame."

Legendary lawman Charlie Dorsey, a retired FBI agent and profiler, was working out of Tuscaloosa for the University of Alabama at the time of the murder. He then developed a profile of the killer in the aftermath and said the unknown subject was likely young in age and lived in close proximity to Ragsdale's residence.

Dorsey's profile insists the killer likely walked to and from the crime scene, indicating this individual was familiar with the location before asserting that the singular suspect exhibited an “extreme lack of criminal sophistication.”

Another qualified law enforcement source who asked not to be named made an illuminating point here that could not be gleaned from the profile: "the killer was comfortable in that house."

Dorsey also pointed out that the offender most likely displayed "tremendous behavioral changes" in the days following the murder, with the behavior being obvious to those around the person responsible.

I spoke briefly with Dorsey for this story and while he was generous with his time and willing to talk about the case, my deadline for the anniversary regrettably presented too quick of a turnaround as he understandably wanted to refresh his memory before speaking about specifics on the record.

While Dorsey is highly revered in his field, it's worth noting that another source quite familiar with the case mentioned to me on background, "me or you could have compiled that profile," pointing out that the specifics were all simple deductions from the evidence that been provided — the suspect knew the victim, didn't drive to the scene, wasn't an expert criminal, etc.

If I'm just calling balls and strikes here, I'd say that's a fair assessment about the profile and it could be yet another red herring in a case saturated with head-scratching evidence.

"It's been 12 years since Kate Ragsdale was assaulted and murdered ... 12 years," my Dad hollered at me, like I had just struck out looking in a little league baseball game. "For a long time in this case, we kept things secret because we had to, that's the nature of it. But just like any secrets, they leak out or become common knowledge like a lot has with this case. So much is out there now that people discuss, it just might not have been printed or maybe folks forgot about it. But after a while, things go a little dormant and people forget those things unless you were somehow involved in it. There may be something out there that the person involved would only know and everybody else has forgotten. But a lot of this should be out there [for the public]."

Dale Phillips has a refined theory of the case that some believe and others don't.

It's not my place to sell you on his lone interpretation of the case and, regardless of my opinion or own interpretations of such theories, they aren't why I wrote this column.

When it comes to everything from politics to college football, I will just about always disagree with the man for the sole sake of being contrary and he is likely to do the same with me. But his mind is a steel trap for details, his professional ethics are unimpeachable and it's a case we seem to have discussed at any rate just about every time we've gotten together since the murder.

As I've told so many over the years, "Dale is Ahab and Kate Ragdale's killer is Moby Dick" — the point being that while his efforts and energy over the years could very well end up being little more than an exercise in mad futility, his conviction and drive on the case is objectively undeniable. And he thinks about it every single day.

Indeed, I'm not here to make accusations, offer speculations or work to prove his theories or anyone else's to be true. In fact, I'm not even going to mention his theories — just the timeline and the evidence I can corroborate.

He's an open book, so you're free to ask him and he'll gladly tell you, I'm sure.

Rather, my Dad's knowledge of the case is so vivid when put under scrutiny to the point that most, if not all, of what he's told me is easily reinforced by the facts of the case I've confirmed through my own reporting.

And with the current head of the homicide unit, Captain Jack Kennedy, personally heading up the case at present with his nuanced set of 21st Century skills, we could very well be closer than ever to a real breakthrough in Ragsdale's murder.

TIMELINE

Kate Ragsdale was born in Durham, North Carolina in 1940.

She was raised in Hillsborough and Greensboro before graduating from St. Mary's School in Raleigh as the valedictorian of her class.

Ragsdale earned a bachelor's degree in religion from Sweet Briar College and her master's of library science from the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alabama, going on to be hired as the University Libraries' planning officer and eventually associate professor.

Ragsdale found success, admiration and respect in this field and was awarded the Library Leadership Award for faculty in 2004. She also received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the university.

An active member of Christ Episcopal Church, she was a member of the altar guild and served as president and secretary of Murphy Guild. It should be noted that these accomplishments and interests don't include her involvement in civic groups like Friends of the Library Board, West Alabama AIDS Outreach, the Junior League and the Colonial Dames.

"Kate was known for her devotion and loyalty to her family and friends and for her sense of humor and enthusiastic approach to life," Ragsdale's obituary reads. "Among her many interests were music, dance, sports, travel and gardening. She was an avid fan of University of Alabama football, basketball, gymnastics, baseball, and softball. She was also known for her great fondness for animals."

Perhaps the best place to start in constructing a narrative of the murder through a timeline is when Ragsdale went grocery shopping on Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013, at the former Bruno's supermarket on McFarland Boulevard beside University Mall — the current site of Bowlero.

She made a few small purchases during her day trip, like Lean Cuisine microwave dinners and other items, all of which were eventually confirmed by a printed receipt recovered by investigators.

A state autopsy and evidence later revealed that Ragsdale ate one of those TV dinners that evening, before going to watch the popular British drama "Downton Abbey" with several friends at a nearby residence outside of the neighborhood.

It was her favorite show.

Seated restless on his couch in the present, Dale Phillips pointed a finger at the television mounted on the wall and said "that show ended at 9 p.m. and she got up and left immediately."

A black-and-white episode of "The Andy Griffith Show" I'd seen at least a hundred times — the worthless cannon scheme, for those who care — was on the TV screen, but I understood what he was saying.

He then cocked his head to the side and looked at me sharply before saying "like she always did."

A friend who lived in The Highlands reportedly followed Ragsdale home that night and, at approximately 9:15 p.m., she saw her friend turn into the driveway with no reason to think anything was amiss.

It would be the last time anyone saw Kate Ragsdale alive before she was attacked.

"Before Kate went to watch 'Downton Abbey,' she was talking with her son who lives overseas and told him she had to go but would finish the conversation later that night," Dale Phillips said, after mentioning he had just recently talked with one of Ragsdale's sons, both of whom lead successful lives far away from Tuscaloosa. "Kate never rejoined the conversation. There's a voicemail on her phone about 10'o clock that night from him asking if everything was ok. It wasn't like her to not respond."

Roughly a week later, Tuscaloosa Police officers responded to a welfare check at Ragsdale's home after being contacted by a neighbor, Ed Streit.

The Streits, by all accounts, were Ragsdale's closest friends, to the point that they each had keys to the other's houses, would get each other's mail if needed and check on each other's dogs.

"I thought she had possibly fallen and broken her neck," Eleanor told me about her first impressions at the scene. "The fire department shows up first and Ed goes in, then the paramedics, police, all these people corrupting the scene. What I'll never forget, though, is one of the policemen came out and said 'call homicide.'"

The ensuing days, months and years became an incredibly difficult time for Ed and Eleanor Streit, with investigators even questioning Ed as a suspect after his DNA was recovered from a drinking glass in Ragsdale's house.

Ed Streit was quickly cleared as a suspect and investigators were likely just doing their due diligence but it became impossible to overlook the emotional scars evident in Eleanor's voice as she recalled the soul-crushing moment when everyone suddenly seemed to become a suspect.

I inquired how she felt about the case 12 years later and was taken aback by her honest response when I asked her for clarity after she told me she had given up on the case being solved.

I was surprised and felt she was being cynical at first until I realized what she was telling me.

"I have [given up], it only gets colder," she said. "I don't want to give up. I go by her house every single day and for so long I would expect to see her outside doing yard work. The house doesn't look the same now. It's been painted since then and it isn't as painful as time has gone by. It took a long time for me to reach this stage."

Records obtained by Patch show Ed Streit told the Tuscaloosa Police officers who responded to the scene that he had a key to Ragsdale's house, explained he and his wife Eleanor had driven over to check on Ragsdale just before 5 p.m. and found the back door unlocked.

Ragsdale's car was also in the carport, which seemed to indicate to the couple that she was home.

Once inside, Ed called out to Ragsdale but didn't receive an answer before noticing certain items on the floor. With his wife standing outside in the cold a good distance back, Ed turned on the lights and quickly found Ragsdale's body on the bedroom floor.

Ragsdale's hands — still wearing the gloves she'd had on when she left from the 'Downton Abbey' watch party — were tied behind her back and her feet were bound with impromptu ligatures investigators easily determined were from inside the house.

Ragsdale had also been wrapped in plastic, according to official records.

These were all details I confirmed on my own but Dale Phillips, who was called to the scene that evening, added that Ragsdale had also been covered with a blanket. Other law enforcement officials working the scene confirmed this despite no mention of such a detail in media reports or other records.

The initial police reports show paramedics pronounced Kate Ragsdale dead at the scene just after 6 p.m., roughly an hour after she had been found.

TPD officers conducted the initial search of the house and immediately noted a large window on the north side of the house had been broken, with the window shutters closed on the inside of the house.

Indeed, it's the first major observation of the crime scene mentioned in any official police documentation before the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit assumes the investigation and is the piece of physical evidence everyone I've talked to seems to mention first.

"I've decided that because of all of the theories out there, I'm not following anything but physical evidence," Kennedy told Patch. "The crime scene can be interpreted in so many different ways. I think it's because one or more elements we think is involved have nothing to do with it. For example: we have a broken window. Maybe it was broke the day before. Who knows?"

When the crime scene was first processed, Dale Phillips said the entrance to the house through the broken window would have been a difficult passage to traverse. He then recalled how a physically small intern was finally able to get in through the window after some unscientific testing at the scene, so he admitted it couldn't be completely ruled out.

"Kate's sons worked closely with us and what was really unique about that crime scene is that we had it for like two months," Dale Phillips recalled. "They basically gave us the key and said 'however long you need it.' You don't get that often with murder cases, so that was big for the investigation."

Considering the evidence, though, my Dad insists Ragsdale's killer appeared to have first broken the window as a way to get inside before realizing they wouldn't fit. Following this setback, he believes the killer decided to wait in the shadows for Ragsdale to get home and unlock the door.

In the present, my Dad rose to his feet and demonstrated how Ragsdale would have been shoved or rushed from behind as soon as she unlocked the back door and entered the small foyer.

This is a hypothetical that no one I've talked to disputes.

Physical evidence gathered at the scene reinforces such an observation, as a good deal of blood was found in the bathroom immediately opposite the back door. An autopsy showed that Ragsdale's chin had been broken after being pushed head-first into the bathroom.

Investigators have long believed that this injury would have incapacitated Ragsdale, who was then carried into the nearby bedroom and tied up on her bed. This was realized by investigators because, while Ragsdale was clearly murdered while laying in the floor, an outline of blood droplets on the bed indicated she had been there for some time.

The autopsy determined that Ragsdale's cause of death was "sharp force trauma," from two strikes just below her ear. Both blows were believed to have been capable of causing death but the second blow likely would have killed Ragsdale instantly.

Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit Commander Jack Kennedy told Patch that over 100 people have been formally interviewed and "hundreds" informally interviewed about the case as of the publication of this story.

And while public interest of the case persists, it pales in comparison to the hysteria and fear that gripped the affluent neighborhood in the immediate aftermath of the murder.

After all, Ragsdale was beloved in her neighborhood community, so much so, in fact, that $25,000 had been put up by an anonymous donor and $5,000 from the neighborhood, along with reward money offered by the state.

Tuscaloosa businessman Phillip Weaver was the neighborhood association president at the time and said rumors quickly made their way through The Highlands, making a nightmare scenario that much worse with the deluge of uncertainty.

"Kate was just a very well-loved lady throughout the neighborhood and at the university," Weaver told Patch. "We had a lot of fear in the neighborhood for a while but most people felt it was the location of the house and the fact she didn't have a lot of security in place. We just want it to be solved and I hope the evidence they have will result in the person responsible being brought to justice."

Eleanor Streit corroborated Ragsdale's uncharacteristic lack of home security, saying she'd had a burglar alarm system in her house but had discontinued the paid service and it was no longer operational on the eve of her murder.

"I always thought that was odd," she said.

The case has also not been without its more formal suspects.

Indeed, a mentally ill man was questioned several years ago as a potential suspect in a burglary and sexual assault of a woman in Alberta City not all that far from Kate Ragsdale's home.

It was initially thought the suspect fit the profile for Ragsdale's murderer but he was never charged and it became clear that the similarities between the two crimes were merely coincidental.

Burglary and sexual gratification appeared the criminal motive in the case of the woman who survived her attack. But compared to the care that seemed to have been taken at the scene for Ragsdale's murder, this scene was chaotic and disorganized.

District Attorney Hays Webb ultimately declined to move forward prosecuting the case and investigators were back to square one — no closer to an arrest than the day Ragsdale's body was found.

Any Day Now

Captain Jack Kennedy is one of the longest serving commanders in the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit's relatively short history and dropped a heavy three-ring binder on his desk that was several inches thick and colorfully feathered with overflowing files and tabs.

And while so much time and energy has been spent over the last decade burning up shoe leather and chasing down countless leads, Kennedy is taking his own approach.

"To reignite a rabbit hole of hearsay for me, personally, I don't think I would be very effective getting anywhere with that," he said. "For cold cases, for whatever reason, there's one or two people everyone believes is a suspect and you never really know, so I want to come at things in a different way."

Kennedy is possibly the only cop I've ever met with a biology degree hanging on his office wall and he pointed out that each investigator in the multiagency unit brings a different set of skills to their daily work.

This also applies to the commander of the unit.

"That's what makes us so effective," he said. "You have some people who may be more people-based, they are good at working leads and talking to folks. For me in this case, I think my skills are better suited focusing on the forensics and physical evidence. The guys before me who already did so much on this case were as dutiful and driven as anybody to bring an offender to justice and I don't see any point in re-doing the work they already put so much time into."

After DNA evidence was collected from the Ragsdale scene — DNA evidence pointing to a white male who has yet to be ruled out — Kennedy is confident that burgeoning technological advances will eventually result in a definitive match to place a known suspect at the crime scene.

I'll admit, I first scoffed at the idea of investigators holding out for some illuminating revelation from a vast government database. Even more so when considering that Ragsdale wasn't likely to be close with any known criminals who could possibly have their DNA register in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) — a DNA database administered by the Department of Justice that aids law enforcement.

But a former investigator who worked the case and asked not to be named made a great point that tweaked my own perspective.

"Think about how much more advanced those DNA genealogy systems will be, even in just like five years," they said, pointing out that the evolution of the platforms could bring complete certainty to the case even compared to today's seemingly limited capabilities.

To Kennedy's credit, I reported a little over two years ago when the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit announced the identification of a longtime serial rapist who was suspected of sexually assaulting two women in the Tuscaloosa area in 1990 and 2001.

It was a bombshell case for the unit and one where they deserved a victory lap for their sweat equity and patience.

Elliott L. Higgins died in 2014, a little less than a decade before DNA evidence catalogued on a genealogy website was able to give closure to his many victims. And few will dispute that such a localized anecdote signaled a compelling change in investigative techniques.

"It was a huge multi-state investigation," Kennedy said. "He was a true stranger, a true serial offender. Without that investigative genealogy lead that I was later able to confirm through his paternity, that wouldn't have been solved. Out of the thousands of leads I went through, there was nothing and it had never been on the radar. He was only in town for two days."

Most leads on physical evidence seem exhausted at this point in the Kate Ragsdale case but Kennedy is holding out hope that the technological resources at their disposal will eventually bring her killer to justice.

After all, DNA is the only physical evidence that the suspect can't destroy, even if such knowledge is public.

I approached this story wanting to reach some grand epiphany and unearth perspective that could possibly help investigators catch the murderer.

The hypotheticals offered over a dozen or more interviews and hours of background conversation were numerous and each more complicated than the last.

Instead of refining my own theory to zero in on a potential suspect or even establish a motive, my biggest takeaway became that there is zero consensus on the most important elements of the case and that could be one of the reasons its unsolved over a decade later.

Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Loyd Baker was the commander of the homicide unit at the time of Ragsdale's murder and is a trusted source for big-picture thinking when it comes to complex investigations.

Like everyone else, he has his own theories on the case but said something that truly resonated and I will ask him for forgiveness instead of permission to share it:

"Any time there is a case like this, the details grow into confusion."

In all my leg work on this story and years of thinking about it, that quip sums it up pretty well.

Even with a fresh set of eyes on the case, the quantity and complexity of evidence is overwhelming and once you start tugging at one yarn, it's incredibly easy to get tunnel vision at the expense of other more relevant details staring you right in the face.

And that's when I came around to Jack Kennedy's approach. It's simple and it's proven, it just takes patience, a little bit of dumb luck and a few anticipated technological advancements.

At this point, it could very well be the last avenue to close this case and seeing the hope in Kennedy's eyes made me a little more optimistic than I was before I sat down in his office.

Dale Phillips also thinks this is the most likely approach to nab the killer and pointed out that Kate Ragsdale's murder was one of the first DNA profiles from a criminal case submitted to Parabon NanoLabs — a Virginia-based firm that provides DNA phenotyping services for law enforcement.

Frustrated and still hungry for answers, my Dad reflected on the 12 years that had passed since first processing that crime scene in The Highlands and suggested that the current approach might just be the right one.

"The state was able to provide a perfect DNA profile from what we recovered at the scene. And when that lines up, we're going to know who did it."

Ryan Phillips is an award-winning journalist, editor and opinion columnist. He is also the founder and field editor of Tuscaloosa Patch. The opinions expressed in this column are in no way a reflection of our parent company or sponsors. Email news tips to ryan.phillips@patch.com.