In the summer of 2024, the life of 70-year-old Michael Robert Riccio, a Caucasian male, was brought to a violent end in a Burnsville, Minnesota home. The events that unfolded around his death on approximately July 9th would remain hidden for over a week, shrouded in a clumsy and ultimately failed attempt at a cover-up. The story began to unravel on July 18th when 25-year-old Josephine Ann Powers herself contacted the Burnsville Police Department to report a shooting that had occurred at her residence on Keating Court nearly ten days prior.
According to authorities, Riccio was at Powers' home, where an argument erupted between the two. A witness to the event later told investigators that the confrontation escalated dramatically when Powers grabbed a handgun and shot Riccio once in the head. In the immediate aftermath, Powers reportedly "freaked out" before beginning the process of cleaning the bloody scene. His body was then wrapped in a macabre package of tarps, rugs, and garbage bags.
Days after the fatal shooting, Powers enlisted the help of 48-year-old Christopher Michael Hawkins, offering him a pickup truck in exchange for his assistance in moving what she described as a "package." When Hawkins arrived at the home, he was met with the grim reality of the situation: blood was visible throughout the downstairs area, and he observed what he believed to be a body concealed in the makeshift wrapping. Hawkins proceeded to transport Riccio's remains to a shed at a property in Minneapolis where he stored his belongings. The attempt to erase the crime from the Burnsville home was extensive, with a man in a hazmat suit even being witnessed cleaning the house and removing sections of carpet. The smell of bleach and ammonia later permeated the residence, a detail noticed by Powers' father upon his return from a two-week vacation.
The investigation, spurred by Powers' own call to the police, quickly led to the discovery of Riccio's remains in a gray container in the backyard of the Minneapolis address. An autopsy confirmed his identity and determined the cause of death to be a single gunshot wound to the head, ruling it a homicide. Subsequently, Josephine Ann Powers was arrested and charged with second-degree intentional murder. Christopher Michael Hawkins was also taken into custody, facing charges of aiding an offender and interfering with a dead body for his role in the concealment of the crime.
