Michael Steven Ricker appears in two separate booking photos inset against an image of a residence where he was arrested for murder in October 2023. (Catawba County (N.C.) Sheriff’s Office; Lincoln County (N.C.) Sheriff’s Office; Google Maps)
A North Carolina man killed his ex-girlfriend’s mother this week – after trying and failing to kill her father earlier this summer, authorities say.
Michael Steven Ricker, 36, stands accused of one count of murder in the first degree for the Oct. 21 death of Lesa Armstrong Rose, 63, according to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
It is allegedly the second time he has targeted his ex’s parents. In June, Ricker was arrested and charged with one count each of attempted murder, shooting into an occupied dwelling, and possession of a firearm by a felon for allegedly shooting his ex-girlfriend’s father twice at a residence in nearby Catawba County.
In July, the defendant was released on $25,000 bond for the earlier shooting, according to ABC/Telemundo affiliate WSOC.
Law enforcement officials were tight-lipped about that initial incident.
Various local media outlets cited the sheriff’s office as only describing the Catawba County shooting as “domestic in nature.” Ricker was initially denied bond for the attempted murder charge – and had his bond set at $55,000 for the other two charges, according to the Hickory Daily Record. A subsequent court hearing resulted in a substantially more lenient state of affairs for the defendant.
The first incident occurred in the unincorporated Sherrills Ford area of Catawba County – a tiny community of less than 1,000 residents – at a residence on Tallent Court. Two days later, Ricker was arrested at his own residence on Ginger Lane in the small town of Maiden.
On Saturday, Lesa Rose’s body was found on the bathroom floor of the Ginger Lane residence, family members told WSOC. The victim had “wounds not consistent with a natural death,” according to Lincoln County emergency services. On Sunday, Ricker was arrested at that same Ginger Lane residence – in a shed in the backyard.
“I was trying to get away from him because of abuse and things that I had suffered in the past. And he just refused to let me go,” Amber Rose, who dated the defendant for seven years, told the TV station through tears. “He kept saying I ruined his life because I didn’t want to be with him anymore.”
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A neighbor who knew the deceased woman said she was afraid of her alleged killer.
“He’s a lowlife. A serious lowlife,” Steven Spencer told the TV station. “If I could have gotten my hands on him, it would have never happened – if I had known it was going to happen or had an idea he was even down there, I would have kept her up here with me.”
The neighbor said he and Lesa Rose went to the grocery store together just hours before she died.
Officials are currently awaiting autopsy results for the victim. Her family said she had visible injuries to her head.
“She was a wonderful grandparent to my kid,” Greg Dorame, the father of Lesa Rose’s granddaughter, told WSOC.
Dorame was the one who made the sad discovery after returning home from a movie theater, he told the TV station.
“She did everything,” Dorame added. “She did everything, basically raising my kid.”
Ricker is currently being detained in the Harven A. Crouse Detention Center without bond.
Law&Crime repeatedly reached out to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office for additional details about this story but no response was immediately forthcoming.
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