A soft-hearted prison minister was found killed in her Kentucky apartment, and Newport police zeroed in on an ex-convict she’d counseled. Thirty years later, the conviction is overturned and the case is once again unsolved. The Cincinnati Enquirer investigates:
Was William Virgil wrongly convicted for murder?
The First Sin City
Police zero in on an acquaintance with a criminal past.
The Hooded Figure
Welch’s boyfriend points police to a hooded figure in her hallway as the likely culprit
The case unfolds
With physical evidence and eyewitnesses, police begin compiling a case against William Virgil.
Missing Witness
It appears that more than one of the witnesses in the case didn’t come clean.
The Lie
William Virgil learned something shocking in 1988: He’d confessed to the crime.
If not Virgil, who?
No one drew a possible connection between these events until months later.
Battle continues
As William “Ricky” Virgil grew old in his prison cell, he never stopped proclaiming his innocence.
The aftermath
Since his release from prison, William Virgil’s life has been on hold.
Key Players
Find out more about each person and their relationship to the case.