Episode 153: Rosalba “Sylvia” Ricchio

When a woman’s family reports her missing, the investigation leads to a shocking discovery. What happened to Sylvia Ricchio?

Episode Media

Matthew Henderson, Christopher Henderson, and Aaron Flynn *(Rensselaer Republican)*

Important locations in Sylvia’s case *(Google Maps)*

Episode Sources

Episode Transcript

Welcome back to Bite-Sized Crime. This week I’m bringing you a case that didn’t get much attention at the time, but one that I feel is important to tell. This episode discusses sensitive topics and includes graphic descriptions, so listener discretion is advised.

Rosalba Sylvana Speranza was born in Italy in 1955. Young Rosalba, who went by Sylvia, grew up in a big family, one of six sisters. In her teens, Sylvia met Mario Ricchio, a handsome young man from southern Italy who was seven years older than her. Mario and Sylvia got married, and in 1972, they decided to chase the American dream. They immigrated to the United States and settled in Calumet City, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. There, they raised their children – two daughters and a son – and made a life together.

But it wasn’t always easy. Sylvia struggled with the language barrier, and having married young, she only had a high school education to fall back on. She was also far away from her friends and family, her letters having to travel across an ocean to reach them. However, Sylvia was resilient. She was determined to raise her children in a home filled with love and laughter, grounded in their Catholic faith.

As the decades passed and her children grew up, Sylvia faced new challenges. She battled cancer, and a terrible car accident left her disabled. In the early 2000s, she and Mario moved away from Chicago to small-town Indiana, a change that Sylvia struggled with. Making new friends was hard, and Sylvia often felt isolated and alone. Of course, she made the best of things, finding comfort in her role as homemaker.

By the spring of 2009, 54-year-old Sylvia was in a completely new phase of life. She and Mario had divorced, and she was living alone in a small house in Wheatfield Township, Indiana. She found companionship in her two small dogs, Pomeranians that she adored and treated like her own children. She cleaned houses to earn extra money and spent her free time knitting her own designs. She cherished being Nonna to her three grandchildren and tried to see them as often as she could.

In early March of 2009, Sylvia’s family realized that they hadn’t heard from her in a few days, and now she wasn’t answering her phone. They reached out to the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office and requested a welfare check. On March 11th, deputies arrived at Sylvia’s home off Highway 231, but no one answered the door when they knocked. Looking through the windows, the deputies could see that the house was in disarray. Fearing that Sylvia could be hurt or in danger, they entered the home and began looking around. It was clear that there had been some sort of struggle inside, and the deputies noticed that the phone line had been pulled out of the wall. Sylvia’s purse was in the house, as were her prescription medications, but Sylvia was nowhere to be found. Perhaps the most alarming discovery was that of Sylvia’s two Pomeranians, locked in the bathroom and barking frantically. Sylvia never would have left her dogs alone like that – she took them everywhere she went.

The sheriff’s office issued a police bulletin for Sylvia’s vehicles, a 1993 Geo Tracker and a 2000 Ford Taurus, hoping that one of them would lead to Sylvia’s whereabouts. On March 13th, the Geo Tracker was spotted in the town of Sumava Resorts, 20 miles west of Sylvia’s home. The driver was identified as 26-year-old Aaron Flynn. He was detained and held for questioning, during which he claimed that he was a friend of Sylvia Ricchio. He said that he did handiwork for her and sometimes slept in her spare bedroom when he needed a place to stay.

Authorities didn’t have enough information to hold Aaron on charges related to Sylvia’s disappearance, so he was given a misdemeanor charge of driving with a suspended license and taken to the Newton County Jail, where he bonded out the same day.

Meanwhile, search teams were scouring a nature preserve 20 miles south, following a tip received by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. On March 9th, a woman had contacted authorities saying that she had heard screaming near the Willow Slough Fish & Wildlife Area. According to the woman’s report, she had been dropping a friend off at their house around 10:30pm when she heard high-pitched screams pierce the air. She said it sounded like a woman’s voice, and she listened helplessly as the terrified screams continued before eventually fading away. When she contacted authorities, she was told that the sound was most likely the cries of a pack of coyotes. Now, investigators wondered if it could be related to Sylvia’s disappearance.

Search teams from multiple law enforcement agencies spread out across the Willow Slough area with helicopters and tracking dogs, but ultimately, they didn’t find any sign of Sylvia Ricchio.

On March 14th, detectives got a tip that Sylvia’s Ford Taurus had been spotted at a house in Lake Village, just a few miles from where they had found her other car. When they pulled up to the house, they encountered a familiar face – Aaron Flynn.

Aaron was once again detained and held for questioning. This time, investigators had more information to work with. Not only had Aaron been found in possession of both of Sylvia’s vehicles, he had also used Sylvia’s debit card to withdraw $300 from her bank account on March 10th. Aaron was arrested and charged with theft and booked into the Jasper County Jail.

While processing the Ford Taurus, forensic investigators discovered blood and hair residue on the lid of the trunk. It was sent to the state crime lab where it was determined to have come from a human.

When confronted with this evidence, Aaron Flynn confessed that he had abducted and murdered Sylvia Ricchio and agreed to lead investigators to her remains.

On March 15th, Aaron took authorities to an abandoned farm in Newton County. There, they found Sylvia buried in a shallow grave. It appeared that she had been beaten around the head and neck.

Aaron Flynn was arrested and charged with criminal confinement for abducting Sylvia Ricchio from her home. Prosecutors wanted to wait to file murder charges until the investigation was complete and all suspects had been identified.

While in custody, Aaron admitted that he hadn’t carried out this crime alone. On March 16th, authorities arrested 23-year-old Mathew Henderson and his cousin, 30-year-old Christopher Henderson, for their involvement in the abduction and murder of Sylvia Ricchio. Aaron Flynn and Mathew Henderson were charged with felony murder, and Christopher Henderson was charged with assisting a criminal, a Class C felony.

At a joint hearing on March 20th, all three men pleaded not guilty to the charges and their trial dates were set. But shortly before their trials were scheduled to begin, the men agreed to plead guilty on the condition that they would provide details of their crimes.

According to their statements, Aaron had told Mathew that he was about to come into a lot of money – millions of dollars – and Mathew could get in on it. The men hatched a plan, and on the evening of March 9, 2009, they drove to Sylvia’s house near Wheatfield. While Mathew waited in the car, Aaron went inside, returning a short while later with Sylvia in tow, her hands bound in front of her with blue masking tape. Sylvia struggled as Aaron forced her into the trunk of her Ford Taurus.

As they drove south, Sylvia managed to get the trunk open and jumped out of the moving vehicle. Aaron and Mathew caught her and forced her into the backseat of the car, where Mathew sat with her to prevent her from escaping again. Forty minutes later, Aaron pulled the car into a parking area at Willow Slough.

Here, the men’s stories diverge. According to Aaron, Mathew tried to strangle Sylvia, but when that didn’t kill her, Aaron took a shovel out of the car and hit her in the head. Then, Mathew had taken the shovel and delivered a fatal blow to her neck. But according to Mathew, Aaron had been the one to attack Sylvia. Aaron had hit her with the shovel, then cut her neck and crushed her chest with the full weight of his body.

When they were sure she was dead, the men placed Sylvia in the trunk and drove north to pick up Mathew’s cousin Christopher. According to Christopher, he didn’t ask what was going on, he just got in the car. When Aaron and Mathew told him they needed his help to bury a body, he didn’t believe them at first. But it wasn’t long before Aaron stopped the car and handed him a shovel. In the dark of night, the men buried Sylvia in a shallow grave, then drove away without looking back. On the way home, they stopped for breakfast, as if nothing had happened, as if they hadn’t just committed an act of extreme cruelty.

Aaron Flynn was sentenced to 60 years for felony murder with an additional 8 years for fraud to be served concurrently. Mathew Henderson was sentenced to 55 years for felony murder with an additional 8 years for burglary. Christopher Henderson was sentenced to 4 years plus 1 year probation for assisting a criminal.

At the sentencing hearings, Sylvia’s friends and family members gave victim impact statements during which they spoke of Sylvia’s kind and giving nature. They shared how she was a loving wife and mother, a helpful neighbor, and a genuinely good person. She had offered kindness and compassion to someone she saw as being in need, but that person betrayed her trust, returning her kindness with cruelty.

Sylvia Ricchio did not deserve to have her life taken from her in such a brutal manner. She deserved to live a long and happy life, to watch her grandchildren grow up. May her family find comfort in her memory.