I've been following this case since the beginning because, first, the house where this occurs is about 4 blocks from where I now work, and secondly, because I think Ronald Shumway was my bus driver about 3 years ago.
I used to have to take the 376 from Cockrell Hill PTL to work in the late afternoon, and I remember the driver as a man who looked like Ronald, and who was always very polite and talkative. I’m about 90 percent sure that driver was Ronald Shumway. He was always polite and gentlemanly as a driver.
I think it’s fairly obvious what happened here, after reading literally everything on the Internet I could find about this case.
I think Ronald was murdered by someone he met – probably the drifter that Mrs. Snodgrass knew – and the murderer assumed Ronald’s identity to fraudulently sell Ronald’s house, and to impersonate Ronald on Facebook to throw people off the trail. Then he hid Ronald’s body under the concrete slab at the house and fled.
Here’s the way I think it went down (using all the clues published in the media):
Ronald met the man I’ll call “Drifter,” whom he most likely considered a romantic partner. I think the final Facebook picture posted by “Ronald” before he disappeared was taken by Drifter. Ronald seems to be posing for someone, outdoors. Considering that Ronald was smiling and seemed happy, I think Ronald was unaware at that point that Drifter was a bad guy.
Drifter conned Ronald into letting him move in. I’m not sure whose idea it was, but based on what Mrs. Snodgrass reported, the Drifter moved into the next door duplex that had recently been vacated by the people that had spray-painted all over the walls and that Ronald had some trouble evicting.
At some point shortly before or after Drifter moved in, he decided to rip off Ronald.
About the time Ronald disappeared, Drifter impersonated Ronald in an email message to DART, and quit Ronald’s job with DART via email. Drifter also seems to have contacted a cousin and said he had terminal prostate cancer.
I believe Ronald was probably still alive at this point, but being held against his will in the house on Winnetka by Drifter. I think Drifter began forcing Ronald to reveal information to him, so that Drifter could assume Ronald’s identity, steal everything Ronald had, and sell Ronald’s house for money.
I think Drifter was sending the fake Facebook messages from the house on Winnetka, possibly even using Ronald’s own computer or cell phone to do it. (It’s also possible he had already killed Ronald and got enough from Ronald’s computer, cell phone, or personal belongings to assume his identity and steal his house, and never needed Ronald alive.)
The goal in sending the fake email to DART, message to the cousin alleging cancer, and fake Facebook messages was to make it appear that Ronald ran away with a new boyfriend and sold his house on the fly. Drifter wanted to throw people off the trail.
Drifter lived in the house on Winnetka for a while, as he concocted his plan to sell Ronald’s house and flee. I think this accounts for the filthy state of the house, and the beer and rum bottles found by the new owner of the house. (It would be an important clue if Mrs. Snodgrass knows whether the drifter she knew drank beer and/or rum).
I think it’s possible that Drifter was drinking and hanging out at the house as he held Ronald and forced him to reveal identity-information – or that both Drifter and Ronald may have been partying together for a while before Drifter killed Ronald and stole Ronald’s house (most likely scenario IMO).
Drifter then killed Ronald and buried him under a concrete slab in the backyard of the house on Winnetka.
Drifter then went online looking for someone he could sell the house to quickly, possibly even for cash. He found a guy who buys and sells houses for cash for a living. I’ll call him “CS.” CS advertises himself as a real estate investor who does that very thing – his website indicates that he pays cash for houses and does quick turnarounds.
Drifter then conned CS – and later the notary public mentioned in the stories – into believing he was Ronald. He then sold the house for cash.
What I think happened is that Drifter had somehow gained enough information from Ronald by living with Ronald and either conning him, forcing him, or snooping around – to be able to kill Ronald and assume his identity well enough to get fake ID sufficient enough to fool a notary public.
Drifter had lied to and fooled CS into a fraudulent transaction and literally stole Ronald’s house while Ronald was decomposing under a concrete slab in his own backyard.
Drifter then drifted away.
The reason why police had a mugshot of the man Mrs. Snodgrass knew, the drifter, was because the police did what police do – they canvassed the neighborhood and learned a description and possibly the name off anyone living there with Ronald. They then compared notes with the notary, CS, and the person who had bought Ronald’s house, and discovered the name and identity of Drifter – who I think was Mrs. Snodgrass’s friend. (They may have also found evidence of the drifter’s identity from clues left in the house).
Because the body under the concrete slab has not been positively identified yet as Ronald Shumway, and because of the remote possibility it could be Drifter or some other person, police are not revealing that they are suspicious of Drifter until they know for sure that the body is Ronald. When and if they identify the body as Ronald, which I believe they will, I expect that Drifter’s name and mugshot will be all over the news.
To sum up, I think the person who killed Ronald and buried him in Ronald’s own backyard is an extremely cunning sociopath who is very talented at fraud, forgery, and identity theft, and who has most likely done this before for him to be as skilled at it as he seemed to be. I think he likes to drink beer and rum. He may or may not be truly gay, and he is capable of “homicidal violence” to achieve his ends.
I think we are looking at a talented, skilled, experienced identity thief, who might have killed before, and who had intended to con Ronald and get his house or whatever else he had of value right from the start.
Finally, I’m sure the police have looked at Ronald’s financials. I’m willing to bet they tell an interesting story. I’d be very interested to know if Ronald’s credit cards or checking account was active after the time he went missing, and where any transactions were and what was bought. (I suspect Drifter is too smart to leave a paper trail, and most likely cleaned out Ronald’s bank accounts as fast as he could in one sitting for as much as possible, in an attempt to stay off the grid – like going to ATMs, etc. I wonder if we’ll be seeing ATM camera footage on the news).
In conclusion, I am really haunted by this murder and I really, really hope to see Ronald’s killer brought to justice. I am confident that the police are going to find the murderer very soon, and I’m on pins and needles watching the news and waiting for justice.