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HOUSTON
CHRONICAL
Girl says she heard
Ritcheson talk
about jumping from
ship
By PAIGE HEWITT,
EYDER PERALTA and PEGGY O'HARE, From chron.com on the Web, July 4, 2007
PROGRESO, MEXICO -- David
Ritcheson talked about jumping from the upper deck of a cruise ship a day before
he acted on the thought, according to a fellow passenger.
The 18-year-old Spring man, the victim of a vicious assault that nearly killed
him last year, told friends on Saturday night that he planned to jump off the
Carnival cruise ship Ecstasy at first light.
"I'm going to jump first thing in the morning before anyone is awake," Ritcheson
told two friends, according to a 10-year-old North Texas girl who overheard the
exchange.
The child, Landee Adams of Van Alstyne, was so troubled by what she heard that
she recounted the conversation to her mother, a paramedic, who dismissed it as
idle teen talk.
But the following morning, after scaling a 60-foot tower near the Ecstasy's bow
and ignoring security workers' efforts to talk him down, Ritcheson plunged 200
feet into the ocean about 7:30 a.m. Sunday.
His grieving parents, Albert and Tish Galvan, were expected to board that same
ship Tuesday at a Mexican port to view his body and talk with his traveling
companions as they seek answers about their son's death.
Landee was at the cruise ship's swimming pool at dusk Saturday, just hours after
the vessel had departed Galveston, when she overheard Ritcheson reveal his plans
as he and two boys strolled past her eating ice cream cones. The other
boys discouraged Ritcheson, with one dismissing the contemplated act as "too
dangerous," Landee and her mother said.
"It was scary," the girl said Tuesday. "But I thought probably he wouldn't
do it."
Misty Adams said she did not witness the conversation her daughter overheard and
didn't think the boys were serious when her daughter told her about it.
But when the ship's captain announced a man had gone overboard and the Ecstasy
was reversing course early Sunday, her daughter's thoughts immediately flashed
back to the boys she'd seen the night before.
"Mom, that's probably that boy!" Landee told her mother. Curious, the pair
left their cabin and went to an upper deck, where they saw three or four
mattresses from a cabin stacked on one another.
Another passenger, a Dallas-area woman who declined to be identified, said she
became concerned when she saw Ritcheson standing above her on the instrument
deck as she jogged on a track on one of the highest levels of the ship about
6:30 a.m. Sunday.
The two did not speak, but the jogger told a crew member of the sighting.
A large sign posted on the ship warns passengers not to climb onto the
instrument deck. But, said one passenger, getting up there isn't very
difficult.
Had been seen dancing
At least one of Ritcheson's friends saw the young man's descent into the water
as the ship was moving, said Carlos Leon, the attorney for Ritcheson's family.
Leon said he did not know how Ritcheson spent his last night alive. Leon
said he is not aware of Ritcheson leaving any sort of suicide note.
Cruise ship passenger Jenny Gevert, 25, reported seeing Ritcheson dancing with
his friends at Stripes, a small dance club on the vessel, the night before his
death.
Ritcheson had an alcoholic beverage in his hands, Gevert said, but she didn't
notice anything out of the ordinary.
Passengers are supposed to be at least 21 to drink alcohol, according to
Carnival Cruise Lines policy.
Ritcheson's parents will remain aboard the ship with their son's body until the
vessel docks in Galveston, Leon said. The body will then be taken to the
Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy.
Security around cabin
The FBI will take the lead in investigating Ritcheson's death, but Leon said he
also expects to speak with witnesses on the cruise ship after it returns.
For now, security is posted round the clock outside the ship cabin where
Ritcheson had been staying, other passengers said.
Robert and Beverly Howe, a Hockley couple staying a few doors down from
Ritcheson's room, said they saw an emotional teenage girl pleading with security
officers to let her into Ritcheson's quarters to collect personal items after
his death.
The officers were unmoved and refused to allow her inside, the Howes said.
Security officers also dusted the door to Ritcheson's cabin for fingerprints,
Robert Howe said.
Ritcheson, who testified before Congress just two months ago about his ordeal
and the need for hate crime legislation, had never expressed any suicidal
thoughts, Leon said.
But he had endured much since he was nearly killed in the brutal attack
inflicted by David Henry Tuck, 19, and Keith Robert Turner, 18, during a drug-
and alcohol-infused party at a Spring home in April 2006.
Ritcheson underwent more than 30 surgeries and still wore a colostomy bag after
some of his organs were ruptured when the attackers kicked a plastic pipe into
his rectum while shouting "white power!"
The Hispanic teen also was beaten, kicked and burned with cigarettes. The
attackers tried to carve a swastika into his chest and poured bleach on his
face.
Tuck was ultimately sentenced to life in prison after a Harris County jury
convicted him of sexual assault, while Turner was given a 90-year sentence for
the same offense.
Refused counseling
Ritcheson, who expected to finish high school in July, was looking forward, the
family's lawyer said. He had recently bought a laptop computer and was
about to start a new job. He had paid for the cruise trip himself, Leon
said.
But the teen steadfastly refused to seek counseling, despite the encouragement
of his parents, and obviously was not coping as well with his trauma as everyone
thought, Leon said.
Ritcheson "thought wallowing in his own pain was probably going to make the
recovery process last even longer," Leon said. "I think, in his mind, the
fact that physically he was getting better made him feel like he was getting
better as a whole.
"I think he thought he could just persevere through this without anybody's
help."
But Ritcheson always internalized his emotional pain, Leon said. Looking
back, the teen had just started to show signs of how deep that hurt really was,
based on remarks he made to his parents and other signals he gave in the past
month, the attorney said. Leon declined to be more specific about recent
indications of Ritcheson's inner turmoil.
Authorities have shared few details about Ritcheson's death. Leon said he
does not think the incident was an accident.
"I don't think so," Leon said. "I think he was too bright a kid."
paige.hewitt@chron.com
eyder.peralta@chron.com
peggy.ohare@chron.com
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