A girl has revealed the moment she fell for a death-row inmate, before spiraling right into a life of medication.
Benjamin Ritchie was driving a stolen van in 2000 when a police officer saw him and gave chase.
After wrecking the van, Ritchie fired five shots.
One in all the bullets killed the cop.
Ritchie was convicted and sentenced to death and, until his execution could possibly be scheduled, held in an Indiana state prison.
While living on death row, Ritchie appeared in a YouTube documentary, where he caught the attention of Ivana, then 24,
She decided to jot down to him and from there, romance blossomed.
Before long, she decided to fly from her home in Sweden to the US to satisfy Ritchie.
The pair met greater than 10 times and fell in love.
They’ve now been together for 4 years.
Ivana describes Ritchie as funny and positive.
“Each time I went to see him we had per week scheduled so we could have visits for the entire week,” she told Soft White Underbelly.
“Because I used to be an overseas visitor, I used to be allowed to spend your entire day until 4pm with him.”
Ivana, now 31, was 24 when she met Ritchie.
She said the moment she first looked into his eyes, she felt like she desired to be with him endlessly.
“I couldn’t imagine a life without him,” she said.
“It was either be with him or die with him.”
Ivana, who was born in Bosnia before her family relocated to Sweden, was no stranger to the prison system prior to meeting Ritchie.
Her own father hung out in jail during her youth.
Ivana said your entire time the couple were talking, there was a plan to interrupt him out, with the young woman told to hijack a helicopter.
They made the plan using secret messages and a hidden cell phone, which she said was “amazing” because it meant they got to speak on a regular basis.
Ivana knew the pair could never have a family but admitted that, in her mind, the pair would spend per week together free before being found, and possibly killed, by the police.
“In the long run, he told me he didn’t wish to risk my life so he could get out,” she said. “That’s once I went crazy because my whole plan for my life was to be with him.
“When he told me that, I began doing opiates. I got a taste for the opiates once I had surgery and I continued. I met a drug dealer who dealt heroin and that was less expensive than the pills I used to be taking.”
She began dating a person to get access to his drugs, with the pair together for 2 years until he cleaned his life up and quit selling drugs.
Unwilling to quit herself, Ivana sought out her own drug contacts and tried to sell to maintain up her own habit. But when people wouldn’t pay her, she ran out of cash and medicines.
Ivana’s life continued to fall into turmoil until she fell pregnant together with her daughter Iris, who she says modified her life and helped her “get her life together”.
She’s now clean and sober.
She said she will be able to’t look Ritchie as much as see if he remains to be alive since it takes her back to the time they were together, and all of the sentiments she had.
Ivana said she knew deep down their relationship could never work out but she loved him.
She desired to die next to him.
“That’s why I can’t look him up – I promised I could be there [for his execution],” she said, adding her biggest problem in life was that she followed her heart and never her brain.
But now said she is targeted on raising Iris and giving her all the things she deserves.
Ivana said to today she’s never met a man like Ritchie.
Ritchie stays on death row.
A girl has revealed the moment she fell for a death-row inmate, before spiraling right into a life of medication.
Benjamin Ritchie was driving a stolen van in 2000 when a police officer saw him and gave chase.
After wrecking the van, Ritchie fired five shots.
One in all the bullets killed the cop.
Ritchie was convicted and sentenced to death and, until his execution could possibly be scheduled, held in an Indiana state prison.
While living on death row, Ritchie appeared in a YouTube documentary, where he caught the attention of Ivana, then 24,
She decided to jot down to him and from there, romance blossomed.
Before long, she decided to fly from her home in Sweden to the US to satisfy Ritchie.
The pair met greater than 10 times and fell in love.
They’ve now been together for 4 years.
Ivana describes Ritchie as funny and positive.
“Each time I went to see him we had per week scheduled so we could have visits for the entire week,” she told Soft White Underbelly.
“Because I used to be an overseas visitor, I used to be allowed to spend your entire day until 4pm with him.”
Ivana, now 31, was 24 when she met Ritchie.
She said the moment she first looked into his eyes, she felt like she desired to be with him endlessly.
“I couldn’t imagine a life without him,” she said.
“It was either be with him or die with him.”
Ivana, who was born in Bosnia before her family relocated to Sweden, was no stranger to the prison system prior to meeting Ritchie.
Her own father hung out in jail during her youth.
Ivana said your entire time the couple were talking, there was a plan to interrupt him out, with the young woman told to hijack a helicopter.
They made the plan using secret messages and a hidden cell phone, which she said was “amazing” because it meant they got to speak on a regular basis.
Ivana knew the pair could never have a family but admitted that, in her mind, the pair would spend per week together free before being found, and possibly killed, by the police.
“In the long run, he told me he didn’t wish to risk my life so he could get out,” she said. “That’s once I went crazy because my whole plan for my life was to be with him.
“When he told me that, I began doing opiates. I got a taste for the opiates once I had surgery and I continued. I met a drug dealer who dealt heroin and that was less expensive than the pills I used to be taking.”
She began dating a person to get access to his drugs, with the pair together for 2 years until he cleaned his life up and quit selling drugs.
Unwilling to quit herself, Ivana sought out her own drug contacts and tried to sell to maintain up her own habit. But when people wouldn’t pay her, she ran out of cash and medicines.
Ivana’s life continued to fall into turmoil until she fell pregnant together with her daughter Iris, who she says modified her life and helped her “get her life together”.
She’s now clean and sober.
She said she will be able to’t look Ritchie as much as see if he remains to be alive since it takes her back to the time they were together, and all of the sentiments she had.
Ivana said she knew deep down their relationship could never work out but she loved him.
She desired to die next to him.
“That’s why I can’t look him up – I promised I could be there [for his execution],” she said, adding her biggest problem in life was that she followed her heart and never her brain.
But now said she is targeted on raising Iris and giving her all the things she deserves.
Ivana said to today she’s never met a man like Ritchie.
Ritchie stays on death row.
