TX - Monika Rizzo, 44, San Antonio, 5 May 1997

[Jacqu777]

"On May 5, 1997, the 44-year-old mother of two left her work with no explanation. After a few days, Rizzo’s boss was finally able to reach her at home. She said she wasn’t feeling well but would be back to work the following Monday, May 19. The day came and went like the others before, no Rizzo. The next two weeks brought much of the same.

On June 5, an anonymous male caller told police Rizzo had been killed by her husband Leonard and her bones were in the backyard. San Antonio police rushed to the couple’s home and spoke with Leonard and one of the couple’s sons who no longer lived with them. The son said he hadn’t seen his mom in over a week. Meanwhile, Leonard said he had seen her when she got home from work on May 5. Leonard said a few days later, he woke up and Rizzo was gone. Despite not seeing her, Leonard never reported Rizzo missing. Outside, SAPD’s search of the backyard only turned up animal bones.

Exactly one month passed and the anonymous tipster called the police back again. This time, the caller who was later identified as family friend Robert Hakala, said Rizzo’s bones were buried under a pile of tires in the backyard. Hakala said he was at the Rizzo’s home and saw the dog playing with a human jawbone. When police responded after Hakala’s latest call, they made a gruesome discovery. A search warrant affidavit described human bones, hair, and bodily fluids all found in the backyard and barbecue pit.

A group of archaeologists with The University of Texas excavated the backyard for eight days and found more than 200 bone fragments chopped into pieces less than three inches long."

‘The Bone Yard’: Who killed Monika Rizzo? South Texas Crime Stories, Episode 2

For a quarter of a century, Monika Rizzo's death has remained a mystery. In her backyard, 200 of her bone fragments were found. Her husband has been considered the prime suspect, but he's never been taken into custody.

www.ksat.com

 

[arielilane]

From the above (& below) linked article:

A group of archaeologists with The University of Texas excavated the backyard for eight days and found more than 200 bone fragments chopped into pieces less than three inches long.

Dr. Robert Hard was a part of the archaeological team.

“We literally crawled across the area, using our trowels and moving the roots and moving the grass blades and looking down beneath the grass,” Dr. Hard said. “And every time we found a bone fragment or something the police department considered might be evidence, we put an orange pin flag out.”

Before their team was done, the yard was dotted with dozens of orange flags.

“When you find a bone in an old archaeological site, the bone is very dry. This bone still had a greasy feel to it. So we knew it had not been there very long, but at the same time, it had been there more than a week or a couple of weeks. There was no soft tissue still attached to it,” Dr. Hard said.

Investigators thought the bones had gone through a wood chipper or shredder.

At this point in time, they weren’t sure if all of the bones were Rizzo’s or if they belong to others as well.

The find had police focusing their attention on Rizzo’s husband Leonard.

‘The Bone Yard’: Who killed Monika Rizzo? South Texas Crime Stories, Episode 2

Updated: May 3, 2022 at 10:22 PM

 

[Jacqu777]

- How many shredders and wood chippers could the murderer have access to?
- Can cut sizes be calibrated to three inches or are they pre-set with cut lengths?
- Did the police ever go looking for equipment the killer might have used to do this? I imagine it would be coated with evidence and difficult to clean.
- Did anyone in the victim's or the husband's orbit work in a profession that gave them access to that kind of equipment? If it was the husband, he might have gotten help from a close friend or family member.
- And why would the husband take the body to a shredder/wood chipper, grind it up, and then bring it back home? If he wanted to keep her close, he could have just put her in the woods somewhere where he could go back to her.
- Anyone think it's strange that the husband's friend called in with the tip? Or that he reported seeing a mandible on the ground? If the husband killed his wife, had her body shredded (probably involving transporting her to and from someplace outside the home without being seen), and burying her body throughout the back yard, don't you think he'd have bothered not to leave part of a human jaw visible on the ground? Don't you think the husband would have avoided bringing people to the backyard to hang out?

 

[Noirdame79]

The bones were found in his backyard, but there's not enough evidence to charge him. What B.S.!

The anonymous caller was later identified as Robert Hakala, a family friend. He was at the Rizzo home when he noticed a dog playing with a human jawbone. It had overlapping teeth like Monika's. Realizing that the remains were probably hers, he called the police. He is not believed to be a suspect in the case.
DNA testing on the remains revealed that all bone fragments were Monika's, but there have been no arrests in the case. In 1998, a homicide detective stated that Leonard said that if he could get a ten-year probationary sentence for Monika's murder, he would confess. However, investigators were unable to make such a deal, so he refused to confess. He claimed that he never made such a statement. Surprisingly, even after the DNA results, he continued to claim that Monika was still alive.
Subsequently, in May 1999, Leonard was arrested for attacking his girlfriend; he was shot and injured by police after a standoff. After his arrest, his girlfriend told the police that he threatened to "kill her, chop her up, put her in a garbage bag, and bury her."
Leonard was convicted on four criminal counts, including assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping, and drug possession. Authorities believe that he was responsible for Monika's death but they still do not have enough evidence to file charges.

Monika Rizzo

Real Name: Monika McKinney Rizzo Nicknames: No known nicknames Location: San Antonio, Texas Date: May 27, 1997 Details: Forty-four-year-old Monika Rizzo was last seen alive on May 5, 1997, when she left the government office she worked at in San Antonio, Texas without explanation. She left her...

unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com

He never reported her missing, and claimed that he woke up one morning and she was "gone". A common alibi for someone who murders their significant other and covers it up. Clearly, there was domestic violence.