True Crime with Kimbyr - Vegas Showgirl Vanishes in Broad Daylight! The Chilling Murder of Ginger Rios: Part 3

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

In the final part of True Crime with Kimbyr’s deep dive into the Ginger Rios case, justice finally catches up with a killer. After years of heartbreak and unanswered questions, investigators uncover the horrifying truth behind Ginger’s fate. But was justice truly served? And what shocking details remained hidden for so long? Kimbyrleigha breaks down the final twists, the courtroom drama, and the lasting impact of this tragic case. Don’t miss the dramatic conclusion to this haunting true crime story! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Was this why he came out running and screaming that they found her when he was checking on Ginger with Cheryl? Because he saw that the other body was gone? They had even more questions, but right now, they were trying to make a preliminary identification of Ginger using a tattoo on her lower back. But they had to wait for the DNA to confirm this before they told the heartbreaking news to her family. At the same time, police are searching John's Phoenix Spycraft store, and inside, they found a shovel, which dried concrete on it. And in the Las Vegas location, now they have a full warrant and they were in deep.

They were able to pull up a bunch of the carpeting in the back of the store and they found bloodstains underneath. They immediately sent the blood in and the DNA results proved it was indeed Ginger's. And not only that, the same day, the police get a phone call from a man named Doug Stauffer who worked at a place called the sub factory sandwich shop right next door to the craft store in Phoenix.

And he was calling to inform them that he had information in regard to Ginger Rios. He said that John Flowers' wife, Cheryl, had confided in him and one of his co-workers, Tony Velikoff. She told them everything in case something were to happen to her. She said Ginger came into the Las Vegas store. John killed her and then drove the body and her onto the desert to bury her. Now John was calling their substore. He called 10 times that day, asking if they knew where Cheryl was. They knew that she had gone to the FBI. So they were afraid that John may do something if he thought that they knew anything. The caller explained John told him he was paging and paging Cheryl and he was going to break every bone in her face so you couldn't recognize

her. That's scary. So at this point, there is a warrant already out for John's arrest on federal charges back in Florida for battery on a federal officer and for violating his parole on counterfeiting charges. So they had a manhunt in place. And of course the additional charge in Las Vegas for the murder of Ginger Rios. They had also looked into the other victim that was found nearby back in May. The very next day, John was tracked down in a motel in Los Angeles where he was arrested by U.S. custom officials. It was hard to keep the news about Ginger's body from being found out and getting out to the family before Detective Roslin had an opportunity to notify them. He did not want them to find out that way.

So once there was official confirmation from the medical examiner, Roskin sat down with George to give him the devastation. news. The first thing George thought about was the fact that he would have to tell his wife that their daughter was dead. It was the hardest thing he ever had to do in his life. He sat Denise down and he told her they found Ginger but she's not alive and it's a moment he will never forget. Denise was heartbroken. She said that this has damaged their family beyond repair. She went on to add that John Flowers robbed them of Ginger and the beautiful person she was. She was always making other people happy. She would ask, what's wrong and then hug her so tightly? She doesn't have that anymore. George was shocked. He explained, quote, I spoke to John on the phone that night. I spoke to him

face to face. We went down to his store. They were outside. I saw him in his van, his baby, his wife. They look like a typical family. And if I were to conjecture, Ginger was probably in the van. My heart stops to think that this person could have hours earlier murdered my girl and stood face to face with her father. It's horrendous to think a person could do that." He also explained that children were a peace of our lives and when Ginger is gone, it's like losing an arm. You're not whole anymore. And if you can't be safe in a store with an owner, where are you safe? And I was thinking the same thing. This could literally happen to anyone. Of course, the family want to know how Ginger died. But Detective Roskin held back that information.

He didn't want to give specifics about her cause of death because it was a very brutal beating. He didn't think the family needed to hear every detail at that very moment when they were trying to take in the reality that their loved one was never coming back. That Danielle lost her big sister, that they lost a daughter, and that Mark lost the love of his life. Mark was torn apart when he found out the news. Mark said that it ruined his life. He said, quote, I've lost everything. I lost my job. I lost my brand new house. I held out for her. I wanted to believe that she was alive. I would give everything just to have my baby back. We had everything. And within a split second, it was gone. End quote. He felt terrible because he thought he could have gone in there instead of waiting in the car. And he carried a lot of guilt. But he said he didn't know if he would have gone into that store, would he have been killed too? Or could he have saved her? Or was his role to be the one to connect the police with the Spycraft store.

He didn't know. But George then told the media that this was just the second chapter of a long road. First, they had to go through her missing. Now her murder. And then they'll have to wait for the trial and go through the trial itself and hear the gritty details of how she died.

But it's not over yet. There's much more to the story. One question everyone had was why? Why would a married man, a father himself, kill someone else's wife, someone else's child at random, and who was this other woman in the grave nearby? They had so many questions for him, but right now they had to extradite him back to Florida first so he could face the charges there. Then they would try to get him to Las Vegas for questioning and to stand trial for Ginger's murder. But that would take some time. They had also been informed

of something else. Uh, there was no John Flowers. Yep, that was not his real name. It was actually 26-year-old Craig Jacobson, so we're going to call him Craig from now on. He had been going by an alias to avoid capture on those federal charges from back in Tampa, Florida, because apparently five years earlier, a federal judge in Tampa questioned his mental stability. He was caught crossing state lines with stolen computer equipment, and they did a psychiatric evaluation at the time. It turned out that Craig, aka John Flowers, had psychiatric problems dating back to when he was only 10 years old. He would go around telling people that he worked for the FBI, the CIA, the DEA, and a psychiatrist actually diagnosed him with borderline, paranoia, and having antisocial

personality tricks. Craig would actually have frequent auditory hallucinations, saying that he could hear a woman's voice laughing or talking to him, and he ended up being hospitalized for a year, and then he was sentenced to 30 months behind bars and three years of probation. But in 1995, he vanished, and that is when he became John Flowers. Of course, now the authorities are even more interested in knowing everything about Craig's background. And of course, people are coming forward because they're comfortable now that he's behind bars, including a former employee. An employee he fired from his Las Vegas store the day of Ginger's murder.

The employee wanted to remain anonymous, but came forward with information about his former boss. He said Craig had threatened him once. telling him if he ever told authorities anything about him, there were plenty of holes in the desert. At the time, though, the employee thought Craig was kidding that he was making a joke and he was referencing a movie, the movie Goodfellas, because the movie also mentioned holes in the desert. But this former employee said he came to the Vegas store around noon

on April 4th asking about his paycheck, and that was the last time he saw Craig, because he fired him right then and there. This employee said, Craig, Cheryl, and their baby were living in the back of the store, There was no running water, their dog would go to the bathroom everywhere, and they would usually have to go to Motel 6 to take showers. He was just explaining all the weird quirks about Craig,

saying that he used many different names and kept a lot of money in his briefcase. He also kept bars on their windows. He installed a bunch of different doors in the back of the store so that authorities would have a hard time if they attempted to raid him. This employee went on to say that, quote, He screwed in the head, unquote. He was telling them about a time when Craig actually offered to shock himself with one of their devices he was trying to promote on a local TV station,

probably like a stun gun or something. But what was even more creepy is he said that Craig would pay people to take pictures of brunettes who were hanging out at local casinos, and he had found at least three women's wedding bands in the glove compartment of Craig's truck. Wow. When I read about that, I felt like I could see where this was going and why he probably killed women like Ginger and possibly the victim that resembled her. Just wait. We're almost at the end where I'm going to tie everything together for you.

When all of this was being put out in the media, a young girl came forward. She was in her teens. She said a couple months ago, she was shopping in the very same spy store that Ginger had gone into. The owner was being really sketchy and then all of a sudden he grabbed her, he threw her over his shoulder and he started carrying her to the back room. can you imagine? I just stopped and pictured it. Just pictured that happening to me, honestly wouldn't know what to do.

If someone just picked me up like that, carried me into a back room, but this teenager was so lucky because the customer came in and it scared Craig enough to drop her and let her go. She didn't come forward before because one, she was scared and she didn't think anyone was going to believe her.

It was a teenager's word against an adult business owner, but now she felt like she had to speak up. On the 26th of August, just days after Craig was arrested in California, he was in custody in a Los Angeles County Jail where he was an award that was monitored every 15 minutes. While a call came into authorities about an emergency situation, a nurse from the jail found Craig suspended from the ceiling from a bed sheet tied around his neck. It was Tuesday at 1.45 and he was rushed to the medical center in Los Angeles.

He was currently in a coma. And the Las Vegas Homicide Department wasn't even informed about this about the attempt on his life. until a week later when they were told he may or may not make it out alive. Ginger's family and the detectives, they thought this was an attempt at Craig trying to plead insanity if he were to survive and he did survive. So he was finally extradited back to Vegas on December 17th of the same year. He was booked into the Clark County Detention Center and arraigned on December 22nd for an open murder charge. When the judge asked him if he understood the charges against him, He said he didn't know what open murder was, and I have to admit, I didn't either.

Every state is different. I went to law school in Florida, so I had no idea. And he explained that he would appoint a public defender to help John understand the charges. What it meant was that a jury was going to decide whether or not the crime was first-degree murder or second-degree murder. At that point, Craig said, okay, I understand the charges against me. His trial was set. But February of the very next year, a district judge determined he was not competent to, stand trial after two separate doctors evaluating him stated he didn't meet the standards.

The prosecutors believe though if he got treatment he would eventually be able to be set for trial. So they sent him to Lakes Crossing. This is a state facility for mentally ill offenders. While this really upset Ginger's family, they saw it coming. They said they understood the ruling but they just wish things were different. Denise thought that this was just going to prolong the case even longer and by now detectives think that the murder of Ginger Rios was sexually motivated. They didn't elaborate, but they said that Ginger's panties were found around her ankles. Now they had to wait until a three-doctor panel at Lakes Crossing made a decision on Craig's competency. Back in Arizona, authorities are still looking

into Jane Doe, the woman they found in close proximity to Ginger's grave. They had a list of 300 possibilities on their missing persons list, and they were doing their best to make a match. Well, they said they were doing their best, but you'll find out later, that wasn't the case. It was going to take a very long time for them to figure out who this poor girl was. In October 1998, months after the first time Craig was found unfit to stand trial, he was once again found unfit. This time, Deputy District Attorney Gary Geiman, he said that Craig was probably faking incompetency and the extent of his mental illness because he was trying to avoid trial

all together. Another hearing was set for November of the next year in 1999, but by that time, at least one psychiatrist thought that he could be malingering, just faking his mental illness. Several of the attorneys on Ginger's case thought so too, and at this point, the prosecutors want to speak to Ginger's family. They talked to them about a possible plea deal. They explain, this could go on forever, and they were worried that without enough evidence to prove exactly how this crime was carried out, a jury might find Craig Gilliol. of a lesser charge. It may be too risky. They didn't want to risk Craig getting out of jail somehow.

So they agreed. It would probably be best to present him with an offer. For 25 years in prison, if he pled guilty. So they did. It was on the third anniversary of Ginger's murder April 4, 2000, and initially he accepted the plea deal admitting he murdered Ginger Rios. But he never gave a reason as to why he did it. But one day afterward, he backed out of the plea deal. It's because he realized that he would have to say he acted with deliberation and premeditation and he said no way. So the next day they came with a new offer. A deal to plead guilty but mentally ill. So he said yes to that.

And his sentencing was scheduled for May 16th. During this time, Craig also admitted to killing the Jane Doe that was buried near Ginger. He said her name was Mary Stoddard, that she was the daughter of a chiropractor. She was 18 visiting Las Vegas when he kidnapped her and ended her life. again, not giving any reasons why he did this. But at least they were able to put a name to the face. Her body had already been buried in a county cemetery, but not before they made a 3D rendering of her face.

Um, to me this looks like a doll or like a clay figure. I would not be able to identify it even if it was my loved one. This is all they had at the time. And they weren't able to match this name Mary Stoddard to anyone in their missing person's database. And there's going to be a reason for that. I'll tell you that much. I told you it would be a long time, didn't I? Well, it hasn't been long enough. They'd have to wait even longer to solve that mystery. At this point, Craig was sentenced to at least 25 years in prison before he was eligible for parole, officially pleading guilty to the murder

charge and to a charge of battery with the intent to kill. A good thing was he did not get credit for the three years he already spent in the mental institution. But the Rios family wasn't thrilled about this sentence. However, it was the best that they could have hoped for right now. But what they wanted was him to get convicted of killing Mary Stoddart. That case was still being investigated and it made sense. Back in 1997, when the Associated Press did that article about how John had these stores popping up in all these different states. Well, now it made sense to investigators why he may be doing this and they use that information to present further evidence that he was using these stores in different states to cover up at least two murders.

Well, in 2003, the news reported on that Jane Doe, who was identified by Craig as Mary Stoddard, and the news wasn't good. A Clark County prosecutor Ed Kane confirmed he had a conversation with George Rios. That's Ginger's dad. He was in close conversation in contact with the Arizona authorities. And guess what? George found out they didn't even know the location of this unidentified woman's corpse. They lost her body. Yeah. They apparently said that they had buried her in a private cemetery in a pauper's grave,

which just means a place where someone is put when they can't afford a proper burial. But then they lost the paperwork, which had information about which grave it was. How can they do that? And George said, this girl is someone's daughter. She has a mother, a father, and possibly someone looking for her. They definitely made some mistakes. However, George explained they did take a DNA sample from the body before it was buried. So that meant that she could be identified if the police could get a lead on who she was. I can't believe they could lose a body like that. Why isn't the grave marked or something? I know it's like, is it a blank grave? I hope with modern technology we don't have these problems because that's, I couldn't believe that. And neither could Denise. She said it's unbelievable.

She went on to say, if we can identify her, we could get John put away for the rest of his life. Well, Craig, John Craig, one and the same. And even get a. death sentence. It was frustrating because there was nothing linking Craig directly to this other woman's murder yet. Finally, on June 30th, 2010, 13 years later, a 100% DNA match was made to the woman's body that was found in that shallow grave next to Ginger. She was 15-year-old Christina Marie Martinez from Phoenix, Arizona. She was a runaway at the time, living with her best friend Valerie Young after being in and out of group homes, where she had been treated poorly and physically harmed, even kicked out of her own home. Her friend Valerie had been looking for her for years,

and she never stopped. She dedicated many pages to her on MySpace, on Facebook. She was hoping to spread the word and locate her missing friend. She was last seen May 3, 1997, on 14th Avenue in Highland in Phoenix. She was wearing a backpack full of clothes on her way to the laundromat. This was seven days before her body was discovered in the desert on what would have been her 16th birthday, May 10th. She was listed as a runaway for years and then over time that changed to missing endangered. This location where she went missing was right near where Craig's Arizona Spycraft Shop was. There was no doubt. He saw this poor young girl and he ended her life just like he had with Ginger, who looked very similar to her. All those years Christina's family didn't know that Jane Doe found in the desert was Christina

until they saw the ring and they made the connection with the DNA match. The amends, stands for Martinez. They're hoping that one day her body will be found so they can visit her grave and they can pay their respects. One caveat before I end with the conclusion, I did some digging, of course I did. And I can't confirm this 100% because it's something I saw on the web, but web sleuths looking into Christina's case while it was still a Jane Doe and they were calling her Mary Stoddard. Well, on the site, the alleged sister of the real Mary Stoddard commented that Craig had indeed dated her sister when they were younger, but that Mary was a lot. and well, and that Craig had always been a creep.

I wondered if Mary was the one that got away. I don't know what she looks like, but perhaps he dated her back when they were around their teenage years, and he never got over the breakup. Therefore, he would constantly be looking for women who resembled her to take out his anger. It was just interesting if it was true about what this woman said, because if Mary was still alive, yet Craig was telling investigators that Mary was the one that he killed, maybe this was his fantasy that he played out in his head every time he hurt one of these women. It's actually very common.

It's one of the ways serial killers operate. They believe that they're recreating the victim in their head. Every time they kill someone, they're essentially taking out that anger on a surrogate in a way. It makes sense that he had people going out, taking pictures of brunettes, maybe casing the area for victims. And Ginger's father said she was in that same store weeks before this.

So Craig could have possibly seen her and got it in his head that the next time she came in, in there, he was going to kill her. Or it could have been completely random. He could have just seen her and done it in the moment. That's probably what happened in Christina's case, and I can't believe that she was only 15 years old. That's so sad. It's sad at any age when something like this happens. When someone has nothing to do with this man, they're innocent women. They've done nothing wrong. They just cross paths with a monster. In October of 2014, Craig was officially charged with first-degree murder of Christina Martinez and sadly Ginger's mother wasn't alive to see it. She passed away on July 24th,

2014 after battling cancer. Her family said that now she was reunited with Ginger in death. In 2015, Craig was finally extradited to Arizona to stand trial, but the same issues of his mental state arose once again. There were so many delays in this trial because of his mental instability. However, it was determined that Craig had previously been diagnosed. with schizophrenia, which actually made a lot of sense, with all the paranoia, thinking that the CIA, the DEA, the FBI were either working with him or after him. And he would make himself out to be much bigger than he was. He even made claims that he thought the Russians were after him. I looked up his case file in Arizona, and he took a plea deal in 2021 pleading guilty to second-degree murder of Christina Martinez.

But then he changed his plea, and he went to trial in 2022. I couldn't keep up with it. look at all this. The thing I can tell you is that he is in prison for the rest of his life. So there's that. And this case was just crazy to me because it was so senseless. And they believe Craig was responsible for more murders as well. They think he could have been a serial killer. In fact, there are a number of murders that happened in the same area near the desert dating back to 1994. And they're still trying to investigate to connect them to Craig Jacobson. I just want to say that I'm sorry to both of these families. These two innocent, beautiful, precious women taken way too soon in such a senseless way.

I'm also sorry to Cheryl and the child that she had with Craig, that they have to live with the reality of who he really is, and it's so terrifying. It seems like this happened out of nowhere, that you never know what's going to happen. You never know what's going on in someone's mind, and that's what scares me the most. George said they look like the typical family. I want to leave you with something that Ginger's sister said. Daniela said, quote, there's so much that Craig stole from our family. So much. Every event that happens, it's kind of bittersweet. Anything happy, there's always a thought in your head, you know, I wish you was here to see this. Anything sad that happens, there's always that thought of, I wish you was here to help me with this, just knowing

that we can never get that back. And it will be an entire lifetime of wondering about those things. End quote. That hurts. And it's a pain that will never go away. And I'm always so sorry to all of the victim's families every time I tell one of these stories. And I'm so thankful for all of you, giving your time to hear about their stories, to learn about who they were, to have their memory carry on in all of our minds with us repeating their stories, telling other people. And most of all, making sure that their death wasn't in vain by taking something from each and every one of these stories. So I thank you so very much for being here. And I will see you in my next video. Bye.