The Lone Survivor Of A Vicious Attack On His Family Recounts Horror

Lisa Champion was in her recliner at her Cadiz, Kentucky, home on Oct. 24, 2014 around 11 a.m. when she heard gunshots. While it wasn’t unusual to hear gunshots in the distance at her rural home, those shots sounded very close.

Within minutes, she heard someone calling her name at the front door. Initially, she believed that someone was coming to tell her that some of her livestock was loose, but the person on the porch was her nephew, Ryan Champion. His wrists were bound with duct tape, and he was urging his aunt to call 911.

Lisa called for help, and Ryan told her she needed to also ask for an ambulance for his parents and sister, who were in the house across the street.

Lisa told the dispatcher she would go check on her brother, sister-in-law, and niece, and she hung up the phone.

Ryan went with her to his family’s home, simply telling his aunt that she wouldn’t want to go in there.

“I knew then that this was bad,” Lisa recalled.

Inside the house, she found her brother, niece, and sister-in-law shot.

Authorities arrived at the scene. The idyllic farmland gave no indication of the horror awaiting them inside the quaint farmhouse.

Lindsey Champion was lying dead near the back of the house. Joy had been shot in the basement.

On the main level, Emily was lying on the floor near the dining table. The smell of soup in a slow cooker wafted through the house; Joy had planned on the soup being the family’s after-church meal.

Then, police discovered a fourth victim: 22-year-old Vito Riservato had a gunshot wound to the head and was lying on his back in the kitchen. As police canvassed the area around the house, they found Vito’s vehicle about 200 yards down the road.

An Eye Witness Statement

Ryan told authorities that he knew Vito — Ryan worked in construction, and he had tried to give Vito a job. His employment was short-lived, however, because Ryan fired Vito after he allegedly made several romantic passes at Emily, Ryan’s sister.

Ryan said Emily was uninterested, but Vito wasn’t taking no for an answer.

On the day of the shooting, Ryan said he had gone to the house to teach his sister how to load and shoot a gun so she could defend herself. While the pair sat at the dining room table, Vito allegedly arrived at the home and walked in uninvited. The man bound Ryan’s wrists with dollar store duct tape and began flirting with Emily again, Ryan said.

When Vito heard the elder Champions return home, things took a horrifically violent turn.

Find out what Ryan told authorities during their walk-through of the crime scene on Devil In Suburbia on ID on Sep. 6 at 9/8c.