On the morning of February 19th, 2007, Ricarda Tillman-Lockett did what she always did. She dropped her eleven-month-old son Donnell at the babysitter’s, showed up for her shift at Jillian’s Restaurant in Peabody Place in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, and was — by every account from everyone who worked alongside her — exactly where she was supposed to be.
Around 10 a.m., she clocked out. Her estranged husband, Lou Lockett, was waiting outside. A coworker watched her get into his car.
She left her purse, her wallet, and her cell phone at the restaurant. She never came back for them. She never picked up Donnell. She never called her aunt, her mother, or anyone else who loved her.
Seven days passed before anyone filed a missing persons report. It was filed by her manager, Candy Upchurch — not because the family wasn’t looking, but because Rica had missed two scheduled shifts without a single word, and in all the time Candy had known her, that had never happened. Rica was the employee who called if she was going to be five minutes late.
Ricarda Tillman-Lockett has been missing since February 19th, 2007. She was 22 years old. Her body has never been found. No one has ever been charged.
Who Rica Was
Rica — that’s what everyone called her — was born on April 12th, 1984, on the Winnebago Indian Reservation in Nebraska. She was an enrolled member of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska, a fact that is part of her identity and her story in ways we’ll return to.
Her childhood moved between Sioux City, Iowa, where her mother Francesca Medina lived, and Memphis, Tennessee, where her father’s family had roots. She moved to Memphis permanently at 18, got a job at Jillian’s Restaurant, and built a life. Her mother described her simply: the life of the party. Funny, warm, and crazy about her son.
She met Lou Lockett at work. They married in 2005. Nine months later, Donnell was born.
The Violence
The records tell a clear story. Five days after the wedding, police were called to Jillian’s after Lou arrived armed and confrontational. Over the following year and a half, incidents escalated. In January 2007 — one month before Rica vanished — police were called to the couple’s home twice in a single day. Officers documented marks on Rica’s neck consistent with strangulation. Lou was arrested and charged with assault. A loaded 9mm was found in his glove box. Rica told police he had threatened to kill her or her family on three separate occasions.
Rica took Donnell and moved into a battered women’s shelter. She got a protection order. She told her aunt Richenda Pritchard: “I’m not going back to him.” The day before she disappeared, she told her family she was done. She was leaving for good.
She did everything right.
The Investigation
Lou Lockett was questioned by police after Rica’s disappearance. He gave an on-camera interview to WMC Action News 5 on February 28th, 2007, maintaining his innocence and saying he believed Rica would “pop up.” He has never been charged in connection with her disappearance.
In the weeks that followed, Rica’s aunt Richenda brought a book to the attention of reporters — a self-published work Lou had written in 2006, titled “If M was O and B,” containing detailed passages about dissolving human bones in acid and burying a body to prevent discovery. Lou said it was fiction.
A Memphis judge signed a protective custody order removing Donnell from Lou’s care, noting he had been “heard stating the mother is dead, but the mother has yet to be located.” Eight months later, Lou regained custody. Rica’s family lost contact with Donnell entirely.
In 2025, Shelby County Deputy District Attorney Paul Hagerman confirmed to WREG that Lou Lockett has always been a person of interest in the case, and that the person of interest used Rica’s personal information and credit cards after she went missing. He also acknowledged that the early investigation was hampered by the assumption Rica would simply be found — and that homicide didn’t formally take over the case until years later.
No arrest has ever been made.
Rica, the Winnebago Tribe, and the Bigger Picture
Rica’s cousin Walter Goodwin, also a member of the Winnebago Tribe, has spoken publicly about her case. He said the feeling of hopelessness never really goes away — and that even though Rica’s disappearance happened off tribal land, in a major American city, the investigation led to no arrests.
A 2018 report by the National Congress of American Indians found that more than four out of five Indigenous women experience violence in their lifetimes, and that 96% experience that violence at the hands of a non-Native perpetrator. Rica fits both statistics. Her case is part of a pattern of missing and murdered Indigenous women that extends far beyond reservation boundaries — into cities, into shelters, into workplaces, into gaps that the standard systems were not built to close.
The Family, Still Waiting
Rica’s mother Francesca Medina told the Sioux City Journal in 2012 that she had taken down all of Rica’s photographs because the grief was too heavy to look at them. She said she just wanted to bring her daughter home and lay her to rest. Rica’s father Lester Tillman, who drove from Iowa to Memphis to search for his daughter, died without ever finding out what happened to her. His last words on the subject, as recalled by Rica’s aunt Richenda: “The only thing he regret was that I don’t know where Rica is. Nobody has told us where my girl is.”
Richenda Pritchard has been the family’s most consistent public voice. She has said, across nearly two decades, some version of the same thing: “I wish he would just tell. Because she was with him last.”
And in 2025, simply: “She was a person. She had a life.”
What You Can Do
If you have any information about the disappearance of Ricarda Tillman-Lockett, please contact the Memphis Police Department at 901-373-3883, or CrimeStoppers anonymously at 901-528-CASH. Rica’s NamUs case number is MP179.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-799-7233, or text START to 88788.
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Resources:
Coleman, T. (2007, March 8). Sioux City native missing in Memphis. The Sioux City Journal, p. 4. https://www.newspapers.com/image/337649661/
Montag, M. (2012, May 3). Cold case: A mother in mourning — foul play suspected in Winnebago, Neb., native’s death. The Sioux City Journal, pp. A1, A5. https://www.newspapers.com/image/506383375/ and https://www.newspapers.com/image/506383412/
Miles, J. (2008, February 20). Family seeks answers one year later. WMC Action News 5. Family seeks answers one year later
Madden, U. (2011, March 2). Four years after her disappearance, family wonders if Memphis woman is dead or alive. WMC Action News 5. Four years after her disappearance, family wonders if Memphis woman is dead or alive
Watson, B. (2007, February 28). Husband says he had nothing to do with wife’s disappearance. WMC Action News 5. Husband says he had nothing to do with wife’s disappearance
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Moon, M. (2025, April/May). His wife disappeared; what he said 18 years ago. WREG-TV. https://wreg.com/news/investigations/haunting-justice-the-cases-we-couldnt-solve/memphis-mothers-2007-disappearance-remains-a-mystery/
WREG-TV. (2018, February 19). VANISHED: Recent TN law could breathe new life into old missing persons cases. WREG-TV. VANISHED: Recent TN law could breathe new life into old missing persons cases
Sioux City Journal. (2007, March 8). Sioux City native missing; mother thinks she’s dead. The Sioux City Journal. https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/sioux-city-native-missing-mother-thinks-shes-dead/article_31da98e1-84cd-52f1-bf40-e185809a3934.html
Sioux City Journal. (2012, May 3). 5 years later, few answers in Winnebago, Neb., native’s disappearance. The Sioux City Journal. 5 years later, few answers in Winnebago, Neb., native’s disappearance
Goodwin, W., as cited in Minnesota Daily staff. (n.d.). Remembering the women the world forgot. The Minnesota Daily. https://mndaily.com/201681/city/acmissingwomen/
National Congress of American Indians. (2018). Violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women and men. NCAI
The Charley Project. (2011, March 21). Ricarda Tillman-Locket. Ricarda Tillman-Locket – The Charley Project
National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs). (n.d.). Missing person case MP179: Ricarda Tillman Tillman-Locket. U.S. Department of Justice. Missing Person / NamUs #MP179