Deb George responds to attorney’s questions about herself and her online relationship with murder suspect Ricky Riffe.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Debra George testified yesterday about online conversations she had with murder defendant Ricky Riffe that over a period of time sometimes included exchanges related to the 1985 Maurin murders.
George, 57, said she had a Facebook account in her and her husband’s name and at some point, Riffe made a friend request meant for his old high school buddy, but he ignored it. A month or so later, she responded and they developed a private long distance email relationship that took place over about a year and a half, according to George.
“What did Rick tell you about sex and dead people? That he used to do that over dead people?” George was asked.
“We talked about different things like that, yeah, but we knew we would never do that,” she replied.
George told the prosecutor Riffe spoke of doing it in graveyards and and such places because nobody could catch him.
Did you tell detective Kimsey that Riffe talked about having sex where the Maurins were killed, she was asked? And what did she say to Kimsey about that?
“I couldn’t tell him much because I didn’t want to be killed,” she said.
George is among the final witnesses for the prosecution in Riffe’s kidnapping, robbery and murder trial that began early last month in Lewis County Superior Court.
Riffe, 55, was arrested and charged last year in the deaths of Ed and Minnie Maurin, the elderly Ethel couple whose bodies were found dumped on a logging road near Adna on Dec. 24, 1985.
The former Mossyrock man who moved to Alaska in the late 1980s chatted with George sometimes daily, according to the woman.
They communicated over Facebook, Gmail and video chat, she said. She testified she deleted all of it.
According to George, she once broached the subject of the homicides with the man she suspected was involved.
“I was telling him a story about some guy talking about a murder back in the 80s,” she said.
Through her testimony and the lawyer’s questions, it appeared she mentioned a name of a local man she’d talked with about it, and Riffe chuckled and said the man was a “snake in the grass.”
She was just very curious, George testified.
“He asked me who they thought did it,” George said.
George spoke of one time simply asking Riffe what happened to the bloody clothes.
He turned off the web cam, but she could still hear him and she thought Riffe was talking to himself, according to George.
Riffe said he said he gave them to someone else to bury by the lake, according to George.
“Do you remember detective Kimsey asking if the clothes were burned?” Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer asked her.
“Yeah, they weren’t. And I was shocked,” George replied.
Do you remember talking to detective Kimsey about Mr. Maurin being struck in the back of the head? she was asked.
“He got hit in the head when he wouldn’t get out of the car,” George said.
George came to the attention of law enforcement because her husband Les George said she’d been communicating with Riffe.
After she attended Riffe’s first court appearance in July of last year, detective Bruce Kimsey asked to interview her.
At times her testimony was confusing, as she repeatedly responded she didn’t recall “at this time.”
She admitted she was afraid of testifying.
Under questioning by defense attorney John Crowley, she acknowledged a head injury that made her forgetful and that she was taking medication for a variety of anxieties.
Crowley queried her about why she only just this week made mention of the injury to Ed Maurin’s head, insinuating it didn’t come from his client.
“Well, how else would I have known that?” George asked.
She denied she followed news of the case or spoke with her sister who had been attending the trial.
Two of Minnie Maurin’s children, Denny Hadaller and his sister Hazel Oberg, observe proceedings during the Riffe murder trial.
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Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer, left, and detective Bruce Kimsey confer during a court recess.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter