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Mom continues quest to find daughter's killer

After nine years, Imogene Richardson is convinced the man is still out there somewhere.

By S.I. ROSENBAUM
Published December 15, 2006

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Lance Aram Rothstein] Imogene Richardson's face is reflected in the framed photograph of her daughter, Erica, who died in 1997. John Feiga, the boyfriend, is the main suspect. Nine years later, detectives say he can't be found.

She's at a Wendy's, sitting down with a bowl of chili, and sees a man on the other side of the room. Her heart seems to stop.

The same rounded skull, the same reptile eyes. It's him: the man who killed her daughter.

Imogene Richardson is paralyzed. She can't eat. Has he seen her?

She thinks about calling 911. Then, suddenly, she isn't sure. Is it really him? What if it isn't?

The fact is, Richardson sees John Milton Feiga everywhere. She's always looking for him, at the supermarket, church, and in bookstores.

"Every person I see that resembles him," she says, "I just stare. Sometimes they wonder why I'm staring. But I know. They don't know, but I know what I'm looking for."

What she's looking for - what Richardson has been looking for these long nine years - is justice.

But she hasn't found it yet.

Daughter dead, car missing

1997: Erica Richardson is a pharmacist living in Valrico. At 33, she's the first of her family to hold a professional degree, graduating magna cum laude from Howard University. She loves gospel music, her Siamese cat, and books by Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison.

She has a boyfriend, John Feiga, 36. He can be violent. She's taken out a restraining order against him, but it just expired. They've been seeing each other again.

On Dec. 8, Erica doesn't show up to work.

Her mother calls the Wal-Mart pharmacy at 9:30 a.m. Her co-workers haven't seen her. She wasn't at church the day before.

By evening, Imogene Richardson is worried enough to drive over to her daughter's apartment.

Looking through the window, she sees blood on the white carpet.

When sheriff's deputies arrive, they find Erica dead. She has been stabbed 67 times. Feiga's truck is parked outside Erica's apartment. Erica's Honda is missing.

Later, the Honda will turn up in Louisiana, where Feiga has family.

But Feiga remains missing.

It seems, Imogene Richardson will say nine years later, as if he has vanished from the face of the earth.

Keeping the story alive

2000: Imogene Richardson sits under the lights on the set of the Montel Williams show.

It is her first appearance on a talk show, her first trip to New York. She's wearing a green pantsuit.

At first, after Erica's slaying, she couldn't speak. Not to anyone. She only wanted to stay in bed. She wanted to be done with the world.

Then one day, she got out of bed and started to speak.

She held vigils. She flew to Louisiana to look for Feiga. She raised thousands of dollars in reward money.

Under the bright lights of the TV studio, she feels comfortable. She's here to tell Erica's story. She's getting the word out.

John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted, is sitting next to her. In the coming years, she will appear on his show, too. Now, he leans over to her.

It's on you, he tells her. You're going to have to keep it going. If you don't, nobody will.

Watching strangers

2006: Imogene Richardson stopped the vigils years ago. It was too hard on Erica's brothers.

She still calls the network, asking them to rerun the episodes of America's Most Wanted that featured Erica.

She still looks hard at men of a certain complexion, build and age. She's still looking for Feiga.

When she thought she saw him, that time in the Wendy's, she stayed put until the man left. Then she went to the window and wrote down his license plate number.

Detectives checked it out. It wasn't him.

The case is still open, said Detective Chris Fox of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office's cold-case division. But there hasn't been any sign of Feiga in years.

"There are people around here who firmly believe he's dead in a bayou somewhere by his own hand," Fox says .

But Fox thinks otherwise.

"Personally I think he's too egotistical to kill himself," he says. "He'd rather dazzle some other woman somewhere else."

It's frustrating, Fox says, to have a suspect who can't be found.

When he interviewed for his job, he says, they asked him: How good are you at dealing with failure?

"In this line of work, you're going to fail a lot more than you succeed," Fox says. "But you don't stop trying.

"It's the same for Mrs. Richardson," he adds. "That's why she doesn't quit."

Memories of a joyride

1995: Erica Richardson stops by her mother's house late, around 9:30. She's just gotten off work at her job as a pharmacist. Imogene is already in bed.

"I got something I want to share with you," Erica says. "Put your clothes on."

Imogene Richardson puts her clothes on and follows her daughter outside. There at the curb she sees a brand-new, white Cadillac.

Mother and daughter climb in and zoom off into the night, joyriding through the neighborhood, laughing and talking.

That was three years before Erica's slaying.

The ninth anniversary of her death was Dec. 8. The Caddy is shrouded, parked in Imogene Richardson's driveway.

"I would like to look at him," Imogene Richardson says. "Just look at him in his face."

S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at 661-2442 or srosenbaum@sptimes.com.

[Last modified December 14, 2006, 07:37:06]