FILE 385 / 4 May 2023 / 160 MIN / full

Lust, Blood, Cruelty & Snakes

Lothian, MarylandListen

The town

N ↑Public placePublic placeTown centre (approximate places)
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This week, in Lothian, Maryland ... this is in e Arundel County about 0:00:00

History, in brief

Town note

e Arundel County is named after Lady Arundell, of Thomas Arundell, first Baron Arundell of Wardour, an ancient family from Cornwall, England.

about 0:07:35

1627

She married Cecilius Calvert, Second Lord Baltimore and first Lord Proprietor of Maryland, in an arranged marriage in 1627.

about 0:08:41

1997

In 1997 the US Postal Service closed Lothian's post office and replaced it with a larger one in Wason's Corner, six miles away.

about 0:09:34

Town note

Residents objected; Dick Fries, there for more than 30 years, called it 'a very sharp loss of identity'.

about 0:12:34
All 7 history facts

Town note

e Arundel County is named after Lady Arundell, of Thomas Arundell, first Baron Arundell of Wardour, an ancient family from Cornwall, England.

about 0:07:35

1627

She married Cecilius Calvert, Second Lord Baltimore and first Lord Proprietor of Maryland, in an arranged marriage in 1627.

about 0:08:41

1997

In 1997 the US Postal Service closed Lothian's post office and replaced it with a larger one in Wason's Corner, six miles away.

about 0:09:34

Town note

Residents objected; Dick Fries, there for more than 30 years, called it 'a very sharp loss of identity'.

about 0:12:34

Town note

A postal service spokeswoman said the service is often torn between preserving a beloved centre of a community and serving customers.

about 0:13:16

1997

In 1997 Lothian had two schools, a Texaco and an Amoco station, a couple of churches and a doctor's office.

about 0:13:58

Town note

Wason's Corner had a sprawling trailer park, a bingo parlour, a bar, a hardware store, a bank, a Dash-In grocery, a Dunkin Donuts and a Taco Bell.

about 0:14:21

The figures, as told

Religious

39%

Biggest faith: Catholic, 18.7%

about 0:19:26

Who lives here

White 72.5% · Black 17.4% · Asian 0.8% · Hispanic 6.3%

Ethnicity can overlap race.

Crime / national average

Property crime
about average

about 0:27:38

Violent crime
▲ about 20% high

about 0:27:41

Money

Median home value$544,200
Two-bedroom rentabout $1,550
Median household income$71,912
Cost of living128
All figures and comparisons, as told in 2023

Property crime

"about average"

Direction: about the same.

As told in 2023 about 0:27:38

Violent crime

"about 20% high"

Direction: above.

As told in 2023 about 0:27:41

Population

"6,939"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:18:30

Median age

"41"

Comparison: "a little over the normal". Direction: above.

As told in 2023 about 0:18:48

Native American

"0.5%"

Comparison: "0.7% nationally". No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:19:10

Median household income

"$71,912"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:20:21

Cost of living index

"128"

Comparison: "100 is the average". Direction: above.

As told in 2023 about 0:20:30

Median home cost

"$544,200"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:20:37

Average two-bedroom rent

"about $1,550"

Comparison: "above the national average". Direction: above.

As told in 2023 about 0:21:05

Two-bedroom trailer price

"$50,000"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:21:57

Three-bedroom house price

"$360,000"

Comparison: "about $200,000 below the average". Direction: below.

As told in 2023 about 0:22:46

The reviews

3.1 / 5 · average of 7

5 stars

“'e Arundel is great' and a wish for more job opportunities for locals, repeated seven times.”
about 0:15:43

4 stars

“'Fix the damn roads': too many potholes, more street lights needed, park equipment upgraded, car parks repaved.”
about 0:16:17

4 stars

“A nice quiet suburban area, but it could use more racial diversity and be more affordable.”
about 0:16:41

3 stars

“Nice place but the people are jerks, little to do and a cramped downtown, though safe and good for families with access to the bay.”
about 0:16:53

3 stars

“The whole review is 'I don't mind the area'.”
about 0:17:15

2 stars

“Has only been to one local restaurant, a Tex Mex place that was by far the worst Tex Mex ever.”
about 0:17:41

1 star

“Biking is not easy on the roads around here.”
about 0:18:14

In Maryland

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  1. Mother MurdersLargo, Maryland · 14 August 202519 km / 12 miShow on map
  2. Adopting MurderCape St. Claire, Maryland · 18 April 202428 km / 17 miShow on map
  3. A Murder Not-So-Mystery Weekend in St. Michaels, MarylandSt Michaels, Maryland · 19 September 201934 km / 21 miShow on map
  4. The Mequin MurdersElkridge, Maryland · 15 March 201842 km / 26 miShow on map
  5. Serial Killing Schizophrenic CibalBethesda, Maryland · 20 February 202547 km / 29 miShow on map

The story

Lothian, Maryland, is a small community in e Arundel County, about fifty minutes from Baltimore and half an hour from apolis, with a population of 6,939 at the time of the murders.

Anthony worked as a remodelling contractor. He injured his back while the family was living in Michigan, underwent several operations that did not heal properly, and by 2015 was unemployed and in constant pain. The family returned to Maryland and moved into a house at West Bay Front Road in Lothian. She also said he gathered the children to vote on whether she should be allowed home from a trip to Florida, and that the children voted yes.

While in Michigan the couple had met Jacqueline Riggs, a childcare worker born in 1990 in Sault Ste. Marie, who rode motorcycles with the same crowd. The three began a sexual relationship. Anthony then ounced that Riggs was moving to Maryland to live with them, and she took the finished basement apartment of the Lothian house, paying a little rent. The children called her Aunt Jackie.

She had a close relationship with her father. The girl is said to have overheard her father and Riggs discussing a possible pregnancy and to have found a used pregnancy test in the basement; she was upset at the idea of her father having another child.

Riggs was asleep and woke as she was being stabbed. She fought back and suffered 42 wounds, 20 deep puncture wounds and 22 cuts and smaller stabs, with defensive injuries to her hands and arms. He then went upstairs and fired a single round into Anthony Anastasi's temple as he lay in bed.

She said she had spent the day taking children to the dentist and the grocery store and had not turned the lights on in the bedroom. Police from a quiet rural neighbourhood arrived at the house, which was cluttered with papers, books, clothes and stacks of VHS tapes. Anthony was face up on the bed with a single close-range gunshot wound to the temple, no exit wound, and the .45 inches from his hand. A spent shell casing was found nearby, along with his Bible.

The basement door was locked from the inside and the windows were screwed shut. There was no sign of forced entry. At first the case looked like a murder-suicide, but the shell casing in the bedroom was a .380 and the gun beside Anthony was a .45. The bullet recovered from his head was a .380, and the FBI laboratory confirmed it could not have been fired from the .45; the round would have fallen out of the barrel.

The prosecutor said the call made the case significantly stronger.

The four younger children went to live with Anthony's parents nearby.

The case

Murders of Anthony Anastasi and Jacqueline Riggs

Victims

Anthony J. Anastasi Jr. (40). remodelling contractor, father of five, shot in his bed
Jacqueline Riggs (25). childcare worker and motorcyclist, lived in the basement, stabbed 42 times

Accused and outcomes

As told in the episode, on 4 May 2023.

Accused

Accused

Accused

Outcome

Other people

Anthony Anastasi's parents. took in the four surviving children

The timeline

  1. 1973 Marie is born in Montgomery County, Marylandabout 0:30:10
  2. 1975 Anthony J. Anastasi Jr. is bornabout 0:28:29
  3. 1990 Jacqueline Riggs is born in Sault Ste. Marie, Michiganabout 1:06:36
  4. 1997 Anthony and marryabout 0:30:57
  5. 1997 Their first child is bornabout 0:54:15
  6. 1997 is bornabout 1:01:10
  7. 1998 They register Snakes Are Us, breeding snakes for online sale from their Churchton home (Anastasi home in Churchton)about 0:55:03
  8. 2002 The is bornabout 1:00:34
  9. 2008 Their youngest child is bornabout 1:00:39
  10. while living in Michigan The Anastasis and Riggs begin a three-way sexual relationship after meeting through motorcyclesabout 1:07:09
  11. 2015 After Anthony's back injury and failed surgeries, the family returns to Marylandabout 1:05:23
  12. 2015 Riggs moves into the basement apartment of the Lothian house (Basement apartment)about 1:09:21
  13. October 4, 2015 and her collect ; he waits in the back garden for hours (Anastasi house)about 2:03:34
  14. late that night meets in the kitchen and hands him the .380 handgun (Anastasi house)about 2:03:44
  15. late that night goes down to the basement and stabs Riggs 42 times; she fights back (Basement apartment)about 2:03:59
  16. then goes upstairs and shoots Anthony once in the temple as he sleeps (Master bedroom)about 2:04:36
  17. then The drives home (Anastasi house)about 2:04:44
  18. while they are away places the .45 pistol beside Anthony's hand (Master bedroom)about 2:05:11
  19. 3 a.m. and her speak on the phone for 582 seconds (Anastasi house)about 1:54:30
  20. the next morning and her get up, eat breakfast and shower with the bodies in the house (Anastasi house)about 2:05:28

Places and phrases

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Places in the story

Public places are marked on the map.

Heard in this episode