A man, his mother and her boyfriend were arrested in connection with the 2020 murder of a 44-year-old woman in Long Beach, police announced Friday.
Long Beach police claim that Terry Limas was “violently assaulted” by Brandon Ritter, 35, with whom she was in an intimate relationship.
Ritter was taken into custody Thursday along with his mother, Jo Ann Ritter, 53, and her significant other, 57-year-old Morris Everett, at or near their Long Beach residences, accused in connection with the March 30, 2020 killing of Limas.
Limas was discovered unresponsive in the her home in the 1300 block of Taper Street about 10:40 that night by another resident who lived there, according to the police department.
Homicide detectives were called to the scene based on “suspicious circumstances,” and an autopsy determined Limas’ death was a homicide, police have said.
The autopsy listed the cause of death as “combined effects of multiple traumatic injuries, smothering, traumatic asphyxia (and) methamphetamine,” the coroner’s office reported.
“Homicide detectives believe Brandon Ritter was engaged in an intimate relationship with the victim when he violently assaulted her, resulting in her death,” the department said in a statement Friday.
Everett and Jo Ann Ritter were accused of helping conceal evidence of the crime, according to police. They were booked into jail on suspicion of being an accessory after the fact, and are each being held on $1 million bail.
Brandon Ritter, who was booked on suspicion of murder and being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm, is being held on $2 million bail, police said.