Mom, I’m a Monster

On Memorial Day in 2012, a young woman jogging the trail around Ketner Lake in Westminster, Colorado, was attacked from behind. She fought her attacker off and got away.

That October, ten-year-old Jessica Ridgeway left home to walk to school and never arrived. Her disappearance drew more than a thousand volunteers into the search. Days later, her remains were found in Pattridge Park Open Space. The community was terrified, and investigators were under enormous pressure.

DNA showed that the jogger attack and Jessica’s murder were the work of the same person. A tip about a small cross led detectives to seventeen-year-old Austin Sigg, who lived less than a mile from Jessica. Days after they questioned him, Sigg confessed to his mother, telling her he was a monster and needed to be punished. She called 911, and he was arrested at home. Sigg pleaded guilty, and in 2013 a judge sentenced him to life in prison plus 86 years. Because he was a juvenile, the life sentence carries the possibility of parole after decades behind bars.