Virginia Trimble Ritter, 9-year-old murder victim Marcia Trimble’s mother, dies
Virginia Trimble Ritter, 9-year-old murder victim Marcia Trimble’s mother, dies
Virginia Trimble Ritter died Nov. 11, days after having a stroke and 50 years after her 9-year-old daughter, Marcia Trimble, was killed in Green Hills in what for decades was Nashville’s most famous murder mystery, loved ones said. She was 87.
Police wouldn’t get an arrest and conviction in the Marcia Trimble case until more than three decades after the girl disappeared while delivering Girl Scout cookies after school on Feb. 25, 1975.
Virginia Ritter spent most of her of the rest of her life vacillating between empathy and anger for her daughter’s killer, all the while serving as a fierce victims’ rights advocate in Nashville.
The CEO of You Have the Power, Cathy Gurley, after learning Ritter died, called Ritter “a beacon of resilience.”
“What truly defined Virginia is she transformed her pain,” Gurley said, “transformed pain into a remarkable strength that she generously shared with our entire community.”
The Metro Nashville Police Department posted a tribute Nov. 11 on social media.
“Chief John Drake & our police department mourn today’s passing of Virginia Trimble Ritter, mother of 9-year-old Marcia Trimble who disappeared in Feb 1975 while selling girl scout cookies in Green Hills,” the post said.
“Virginia Trimble’s kindness, support and closeness to generations of MNPD homicide investigators will not be forgotten.”
For decades, without knowing who killed her daughter, Ritter said she prayed for the person who did it. In 2009, prosecutors convicted Jerome Barrett, already in jail for another homicide, for murdering and sexually assaulting Marcia Trimble.
About six years after that, Ritter finally asked to see pictures of her daughter’s body from the day police found her. After seeing those pictures, the prayers stopped.
That day, Ritter said, “If I had a gun, I’d blow his brains out and enjoy every spurtin’ minute of it.”
Ritter publicly lived out the worst moments of her life.
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The day Marcia Trimble disappeared in 1975, former Metro Police Capt. Mickey Miller said, “Nashville lost its innocence.”
“Our city has never been, and never will be the same again,” Miller said. “Every man, woman and child knew that if something that horrific could happen to that little girl, it could happen to anyone.”
Marcia Trimble’s body was found 33 days after she disappeared, on Easter Sunday 1975. Investigators developed several suspects in the weeks that followed.
But police and prosecutors, using DNA evidence, wouldn’t convict Barrett for another 33 years. Months earlier, a jury found Barrett guilty for the 1975 murder of a Vanderbilt University student.
In the intervening years, Ritter reached out to other victims’ families. And she often followed media accounts of children who went missing, Ritter told The Tennessean in 2014.
“Mainly it is just to pray, just to be involved,” Ritter said, “even though they’ll never know I was involved.”
In 2015, Ritter received the Powerhouse Award from the victims’ rights nonprofit You Have the Power and former Gov. Bill Haslam.
“It wasn’t until after Marcia was killed that I discovered the strength, power and love God put inside me has made me strong, strong enough to forgive Marcia’s killer,” Ritter said at the ceremony April 28, 2015.
“God’s Word has been my shield for more than 30 years. God has used adversity to show me what I am like inside,” she continued. “I don’t much care what others think of me, but it matters what I think of me.”
Ritter used her story “to uplift others and offer a compassionate hand to those who had faced similar struggles,” Gurley said after Ritter died.
“Through her involvement with You Have the Power, she turned her personal grief into a source of empowerment and hope, reminding all of us that even the deepest wounds can become a wellspring of strength.”
Nashville District Attorney Glenn Funk praised Ritter for her strength and grace.
“She never gave up hope in her pursuit for justice,” Funk said in a statement.
“Our city grieved with her for decades. Today, while we are saddened, we know they are united again.”
For more than 10 years, Ritter had been working on a book about her daughter’s murder with former Tennessean reporter Susan Thomas.
“It’s amazing how the healing is while I’m writing this book,” Ritter told reporters in 2015. “I’m writing it for anybody who’ll read it, but especially parents of murdered children.”
At 70, Ritter retired from a job with a general contractor.
Her first husband, Charlie Trimble, died from cancer in 1989. Ritter got remarried in 2006 to Tennessean reader advocate Frank Ritter, who died in 2023.
Virginia Trimble Ritter is survived by her son, Chuck, and three stepchildren.
Chuck Trimble and one of those stepchildren, Andrea “Andie” Ritter, issued a joint statement Nov. 12.
“The family of Virginia Trimble Ritter extends their heartfelt gratitude to everyone for their thoughts, prayers, and support during this challenging time. Virginia was a radiant light in our lives, illuminating the world with her kindness and compassion, and her absence makes it feel a little dimmer,” the statement said.
“As we navigate the days ahead, we kindly ask for your continued prayers for our family. We are in the process of making arrangements and will share further details as they become available. Thank you once again for your love and support.”
Brad Schmitt can be reached at brad@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Virginia Trimble Ritter, Marcia Trimble’s mother, dies at 87
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