True Crime with Kimbyr - Vegas Showgirl Vanishes in Broad Daylight! The Chilling Murder of Ginger Rios : Part 2

Episode Date: March 19, 2025

In Part 2 of True Crime with Kimbyr, the mystery surrounding Ginger Rios' disappearance takes a shocking turn. As investigators dig deeper, a suspicious figure emerges, and the truth behind her final moments begins to unfold. What led to her tragic fate, and who was hiding deadly secrets? Join us as we piece together the chilling details of this haunting case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And these things focused more on things that Ginger could have done to make herself go missing. But then I was thinking, it's her husband. If he truly left her, wouldn't he spend every waking minute looking for her? That's what I would do. That was what her father was doing, and he wasn't a suspect. But partners looked at differently. Any leads that Mark brought in, they didn't pan out to anything. They were all dead ends. But the next tip that came in did lead them somewhere. Right back to Mark, actually. A patrol officer had called in to dispatch saying that he found a car on fire in a shopping plaza parking lot. It's this one right here near the Lobonito supermarket in Francisco Center. When they ran the tag, they found out. This is Mark's car.

The whole thing was up in flames and this was the last place Ginger may have been before she went missing. A place that could have been a crime scene and it's now an inferno. How's Mark going to explain that? Well, he does try. He says to Detective Roskin that he has no idea how it calls him. fire. But by this time, Detective Roskin had interviewed many of Mark's friends, and all of them had things to say that didn't make him look very good. But Mark said, I was just having car trouble that evening when I was on my way home from work, and the engine started to make these weird noises, so I pulled the car over in the parking lot, and I got a ride back home. He said, if it caught on fire, that happened on its own. But investigators have to bring it back to be

analyzed, and it was going to take some time before they had the results. Detective Roskin wasn't sure that he was buying the story, that the car ignited on its own. But it was possible. Meanwhile, Ginger's family and friends have made missing persons posters and they're putting them all over town. They're putting them in windows, handing them out to residents and tourists, anyone who could have seen Ginger.

Here's what they looked like. They had Ginger's name at the top, and underneath was her picture, and then had her description, 20-year-old Hispanic female, 5 foot 4 inches tall, 115 pounds, long black hair, brown eyes, small, scar on her right eyebrow. She was last seen wearing a black crop top, blue jeans, and light brown cowboy boots. It was all becoming too real. Their loved one's face is on a missing person's

poster. It was a lot for them to take in, but that didn't stop them for looking for ginger. The weekend had passed, and it was time to reach out to the owner of the Spycraft store and inquire about whether they had any video surveillance that had Ginger coming in and during the store and leaving. And also to get a statement. from any witnesses that were inside that day. Detective Roskin calls the store, and the employee that's on duty tells him that the owner is that their Phoenix location,

but he gives them the phone number, and he says, you can come over here because I'm here until John, the owner, comes back. You can meet me, and you can look around the store. So once Detective Roskin and his team were on the premises, this manager signed a consent form, and they were able to conduct a search. So they began looking down every aisle,

and there weren't many. And this wasn't a huge search, because they don't have a full search warrant. They weren't, you know, sending in forensics teams or anything like that. This was more like they were eyeballing the store to see if anything stood out that would actually give them probable cause

to get a judge to sign a full blown warrant, which is what they're always looking for. So they're seeing if they can locate anything suspicious that will help them make that possible. They just want to be diligent. And besides, this is just a missing person's case. It's on a homicide. So they have very limited resources

until they have an actual lead. But there's nothing in the front store that warranted a closer look. However, they did want to take a look in the back, in the employee areas, in the stock area. They also knew that these stores had tiny residential living spaces in the back, and they would butt up to the alley

so that owners could sort of stay there. There were little apartments that included the basics like a bathroom, a shower, a bedroom, a bedroom, a small cooking space. So they definitely wanted to go back there and take a look. When Rosgen got into the employee area, in the back, he noticed that it smelled really clean. That's not really anything out of the ordinary

for that kind of area of the store, but he did take note of it. Still looking for something that could warrant them doing an even more thorough investigation. And that's when he sees a tiny reddish brown stain on the wall. Now, he thinks this could be blood.

It was really tiny, as you know how it goes. He's looking for something, anything. They collected it for analysis, and that was enough to move the investigation a little more forward. At this point, Roskin needs to get in touch with the owner, John Flowers, and let him know everything that's going on. So when Roskin gives him a call, John seems pretty surprised that they're doing sort of like an investigation on his store, which is totally understandable. But he was fully cooperative. He explained that that part of the

store, smell the way it does, because his dog actually goes to the bathroom over there. So when his dog is back there and he has an accident, he just kind of like sweeps it out the back door, any debris that's out there and then he cleans it up with cleaning solution. He doesn't know why there would be blood back there though. He said maybe it was also from his dog. He had no idea. And Roskin felt like that was all pretty plausible, but he wanted the opportunity to take a deeper look anyway, so he was just going to try to get that search warrant because this was literally the only lead he had.

He also asked John if there was any video of Ginger and he said he would need to get back to that store and check. So Roskin inquired about a receipt as well. He wanted to know if he could get any records with times and dates on it. And again, John said he will give him anything that he had. He wasn't the most organized business owner though. That was pretty obvious. It seemed like he stretched himself pretty thin through all of his stores. But he promised he would do what he cut.

But it turns out that spot that the investigators thought was blood was way too small to test. So they're not going to get a search warrant. There was nothing linking the store to any crime or to, ginger. It just seemed like this was merely the last place that she went before leaving or being taken by a stranger. But still, they hoped that John Flowers could at least provide them with a video to see if there was someone outside that she could have encountered after she left the store. For now, though, it didn't matter because what they needed to know was where Ginger was. It was almost a non-point to be too stuck on the Spycraft store itself. They had to look into more clues

to what happened once she left. So Roskin starts looking into other tips and there were a lot coming in. This story became very big in Las Vegas. Ginger's family was doing interviews on the news and they were continuing to pass out flyers and do their best to keep her name out there. With the days turning into weeks, the hope that they would find Ginger alive was fading. George was starting to actually look out in the fields and into the open desert areas, trying to find articles of clothing or worse, his daughter's body. They wanted to believe that she was still alive, but there just were not any signs. All signs were just pointing to the heartbreaking truth that their loved one was probably dead.

But how? In such a short time period. By now, the investigation had moved away from John Flowers in the Spycraft store, but residents of the area were still bombarding it. They were doing their own detective work. It's kind of like web sleuths of today, but instead it's not the web. It's boots on the ground, especially because the type of people who shop there remember. You have to consider that they're already interested in surveillance,

and security and police work. It makes sense. There are people that go there to literally buy fake badges. There's a lot of wannabe detectives and they're trying to solve this case. The owner was not happy about all of this attention because it was negative.

He was no longer on detective's radar but now it was the media at his door. Everyone wanted a news piece about the beautiful young singer-dancer that went missing after shopping at his door. John was actually interviewed by a local true crime reporter. Her name was Kathy Scott.

She documented it on the Desert Companion website and she said, she went to the spy store like everyone else to take a look around and to speak with anyone who worked there and John Flowers happened to be in that day. She said, quote, he was surprisingly angry when I interviewed him because, as he put it,

20-year-old Ginger Rios had caused police to focus on him. He said it was really bad publicity and he wasn't thrilled to have his store on the map for all the wrong reasons. But don't they say, that all press is good press, I don't know. But he did give his cell number to this Kathy Scott so that she could check back in if anything came up later. And that was that. Things eventually did

start to die down. But by this time, the test had come back on Mark's car and guess what? They found nothing. No biological material, no blood, nothing linking Mark to any crime or his card any crime. The case was starting to go cold. Rosgan checked back in with John to get the video and the receipt, but by that time John was like, uh, where have you been? He reviewed the tape, saw that she was on it, said she came in, got the books paid and cash and left, but they never came in to get the tape and it got recorded over at this point. As far as the receipt was concerned, he did say that he knows he must have a record of it, but he's got to go look.

When they inquired about what books she bought, he told them that one was called paper trip and the other one was the death dealer's manual. The paper trip was about how to create a new identity, and the death dealer's manual was about assassinations. And that's really weird. I looked it up, and it said that it covered edged weapons, handguns, improvised weapons, the garret, the crossbow, poisons, unarmed killing techniques, as well as the attributes of a professional assassin.

I'm like, why would Ginger want those books? It almost sounded like someone was making her by them and then took her and did something with her using those books as a reference. almost like a possible human trafficking situation. This time, John wasn't as cooperative as before, and you might wonder why, but it's not a surprise. He said that all the accusations and all the bad press was causing agencies that used to buy from him to back off.

They didn't want to be close to police. These customers were not trusting of authority, and that was not a good look for him. Remember, these are wannabe cops. These are people who want to do their own investigations. It just they didn't want cops hovering around the place where they were trying to buy, you know, fake badges. He had tried helping the police, but all of this pressure was a lot for his small

business. Detective Roskin had seen this time and time before. It wasn't anything different. There's a lot of people who just do not like being interrogated about something that puts the spotlight on them. And there was nothing you could do to force John to speak with him. There were no links there. And something was about to pull him in a totally different direction, something they wouldn't find out about until a few months later. But on May 5th, unbeknownst to them, Only a month after Ginger went missing, five hours away in the middle of the Mojave Desert, a group of hunters stumbled upon a shallow grave. It was in a remote area down a 30-mile dirt road between Florence and the Riverside area

of Arizona, not too far from Tucson. Inside was the body of a female. She was estimated to be between the ages of 15 and 18 years old, but since this was almost 400 miles away from Las Vegas, the detective's working Ginger's case wouldn't have had a that there was any connection. They were still diligently looking for her. Just two days earlier on May 3rd, the Associated Press put out an article in the Reno Gazette

and it had updates on her case. Here's what it said. First, they conducted an interview with George Rios who was still searching for his daughter. He referred to her as his pride and joy. He said thoughts of his missing little girl keep him up a night. He told reporters, his mind is occupied with it 24 hours a day.

There were times he would be. would just be driving down the street and he'd think about her and he would break down crying. He also addressed Ginger running away and stated, we know that there were little things going on in her life, but we can't imagine that she would just walk away knowing that there were so many people that would be so hurt. He said that she had so many family members, aunts, uncles, cousins that live there. He said it's such a big mystery. Detective Roskin spoke with the press as well and he stated that he's investigating all possibilities, including foul play, the involvement of the Spycraft store or Ginger's husband Mark,

or that Ginger just ran away. He hasn't been able to eliminate any of those possibilities. They didn't realize how close the truth was, but how far away it was as well. The body found out in the desert to not have any identification. They could not confirm who she was. She was described as a Caucasian female, 5 feet 4 inches to 5 feet 6 inches tall, 115 to 130 pounds. And when she was found, she had black shoulder-length hair and distinguishing jewelry,

a pinky ring on her right hand that was yellow metal and had two clear stones and one light purple stone and one ring on her left ring finger. It was yellow metal as well, fashioned like two twisted wires with the letter M or W. And they posted pictures of the ring in the newspaper and were hoping someone would identify this person. This is what the ring looks like. What could it stand for? Was it an M for Mark? We also know Ginger's mother's maiden name was Bladsworth.

Could it have been an heirloom? We wouldn't know until months later. And this case was so unusual to me. It had so many moments that I thought I knew exactly what happened. But I was so wrong. And I'm sure you're in the exact same place trying to piece it all together. Well, it's about to make a lot more sense. Because everything became quiet.

There were no new leads. and the case went cold until August 16, 1997. That's when Detective Roskin gets a phone call from a federal agent who works in customs. So he told the detective he uncovered a critical lead in the Ginger Rios investigation, and Roskin was confused. He's like, what does this have to do with her? The agent went on to clarify,

saying he had a search warrant for a spy store in Phoenix, Arizona. Because John Flowers, the owner, was accused of selling illegal listening devices. He did always seem a little bit sketchy, right? But what was the connection? Just that? Of course not. There's more.

Apparently, John Flowers went on the run because he didn't want to get arrested. However, they were able to track down his wife, Cheryl Cicioni, hoping that she would give up his location. She was currently sitting in an interrogation room in Arizona, and it started to mention the Ginger Rios case. So the federal agent stepped outside

to make this call to Detective Rosgan. And this was huge, because Roskin hadn't been able to get a formal statement from John Floss. hours and they needed all the information that they could get. He recalled that Mark mentioned that there was also a woman behind the counter who had seen Ginger that day as well. It was John's wife, Cheryl.

And now she's available for questioning, which was perfect. So Detective Roskin literally tells the agent to protect her with your life. I'll be there as fast as I can get there. And he raced there as fast as he could. I was actually shocked when I heard what this interview entailed. Detective Roskin definitely wasn't expecting this. When he met with Cheryl, she began opening up about the SpyCraft stores,

about John and his business dealings, and then as she began warming up and feeling more comfortable, she started to talk to him about Ginger. So Detective Roskin asked Cheryl if she remembered seeing Ginger that day. Back in May, and she says, yes, I saw her come in the store, I was standing in the front with John and our baby. She came in, she started looking around. And then Cheryl said,

Her husband turned to her and asked her to go buy some camera film from a nearby store. Cheryl was kind of confused and said right now and Jen said yes. So Detective Rossin wanted to know if this was an unusual request and Cheryl's like, not really. She was always running to go get things for John, especially when they were working together at the store. So she didn't think much of it. She left and she was back within 10 minutes. Cheryl said when she got back to the store, that's when Ginger's husband, Mark, walked in and asked them if they had seen them. his wife. Cheryl explained that she and John both told Mark they had seen Ginger come in a few minutes

ago and John told him she already left but she couldn't have gone that far. Mark thanked them and he was on his way. However, this is when the story starts to get intense. Cheryl tells the detective that once Mark left the store, John looked terrified. He was as white as a ghost. He was visibly shaken and she's like, what is wrong? And John looked at her and said, I've done something very bad. Whatever you do, don't go in the back room. Cheryl had no idea what John could be referring to. It never occurred to her that he actually could have heard someone. But he was so angry and upset that she wanted to understand what in the world was going on here. So later on, she did go into the back. She was horrified when she saw a woman lying on the ground with a pool of blood around

her head and blood stains all over the carpet. It was the same woman she saw come into that store before John told her to go by the film. Cheryl said she checked the woman for vital signs, but there were none. She was shocked, terrified, actually sickened by what she saw, but soon all of that changed to utter terror. Because she realized that John was standing right behind her. He was hovering over her shoulder. And as soon as her eyes met his, he grabbed her by the neck.

And he said, don't you ever tell anyone what happened here or bad things are going to happen to you too. wow and that's not all john actually told her if she went to police he would kill their baby detective rouskin could tell that this was very hard on sheryl she was terrified she even mentioned that the only reason that she didn't tell authority sooner is because she was scared for her life and for her child but once she knew that john was on the run she felt like she could finally expose the truth of course detective roskin wants to know what happened next he asked sherell she knew the details about how Ginger ended up on that backroom floor. She explained, yeah, John told her the Ginger came in,

came up to the counter and handed him a note. It was a note from two former employees who were apparently attempting to extort money from him. Cheryl said, quote, Ginger got in his face and he snapped, end quote. And that was according to the story that John told her. He also said that he gave her a swift, uppercut, to the face right into her nose and she fell backwards and died. But then he also admitted to kicking her and dragging her into that backroom. Cheryl told Detective Roskin, she never saw a note and she thinks that is a total lie. Of course, he wants to know what happened next. So he's

pressing Cheryl to continue telling him the details. She said that John instructed one of their new employees to go buy garbage bags and then he locked himself in that back room for the next few hours, wrapping Ginger up and dousing the entire back room with bleach. He told his employee that their dog had had an accident back there, and that's what he was cleaning up. And then he told Cheryl, we're leaving for Phoenix now. He loaded Ginger's body into the back of their van. The same van that Mark and George had seen the couple entering when they tried to come back to the spy store that evening when Ginger went missing. The same van that they stood next to begging John to please Let them see any video he may have to think that Ginger's body was just inches away, lying

lifeless and wrapped in garbage bags while Cheryl and John looked them in the eyes and lied. It's a lot to take in. Detective Roskin doesn't want to lose his chance to get all of the information. So he's asking Cheryl what happened after they left. She said that they drove right to Phoenix, Arizona that night, but it wasn't until the next day that he made her get into the van with the baby and drove the map. out to a remote area of the desert. Then he literally kicked Cheryl out on the side of the road,

got back in the van and proceeded to speed away with their baby and Ginger's dead body in the back, leaving Cheryl out there in the middle of nowhere for over two hours. It was dark by the time John came back to pick her up. And then they just drove back to their house. It wasn't until the next evening that John makes them go back out there again. This time, he brought concrete mix, a shovel, and water. And he drove Cheryl right to the grave site.

He got out of the van with his materials and he left Cheryl and the baby behind. Cheryl said that they'd actually been out there a number of times so that John could check on Ginger's grave. They asked her where the grave is and at this point she asked for immunity in exchange for showing them exactly where Ginger is buried. And they agree because they truly don't think Cheryl was involved in the murder. And of course, they have to know where Ginger is. They get into a squad car and Ginger direct.

the officers to where they should go. Six and a half miles west of State Road 177, just off the Florence-Calvin Highway. Once they get to this remote area, some of the local Arizona officers are taken aback. They remember this same 30-mile desert road from back in May when those hunters made that disturbing discovery of the young woman's grave in the middle of the same vast area.

The Jane Doe. Detective Roskin is still unaware that that body had ever been found a few months earlier, And as they get close to her, Cheryl says John buried Ginger, she begins to worry that Ginger won't be there anymore. And she voices her concern saying that she remembered something. One evening, after John bought the concrete and the mixture out there, he took her again to the gravesite. Her and the baby were waiting in the van, and John came running back and he said, they found her, they found her, they found her. The officers are starting to put things together at this point. Or so they thought.

Finally, Cheryl tells them to stop the vehicle and directs them to where she said, John Barry Ginger. As they walked towards the area, they were expecting to find an empty grave. But instead, they walk right up to one that's completely undisturbed. They begin to get to work excavating it by removing the concrete on top. And to their shock and surprise, they find the deceased body of a female covered in garbage bags. If this is Ginger, then who was the other female that they found in May? There were two bodies now within a close proximity to one another.

Were they related in any way to John kill both of them? The graves were similar, both covered in concrete and only an eighth of a mile apart.