Joe Imel/Daily News Becky Riddle was killed in 1994 and the Kentucky State Police are still searching for her killer.

The 1994 murder of Rebecca Riddle signaled more than just the end of a life. That single act left four young children to grow up without their mother and tore them apart when three of the children were taken in by one set of relatives and the oldest child was shuffled between her aunt’s and grandmother’s homes.

“I don’t see why anybody would want to take a woman away from her kids,” Beth Riddle said recently about her mother’s death. “How can you take a life from somebody? It’s something that needs to be answered.”

Beth Riddle was 12 when her mom was taken away from her. Beth is the oldest of Rebecca Riddle’s children.

A warehouse manager found Rebecca Riddle’s lifeless body on the first floor of the old Firestone plant on U.S. 31-W about three miles north of Bowling Green on Oct. 18, 1994. It was, at that time, unused warehouse space. At first glance, it appeared she had fallen through a hole in the floor from the second story onto the first floor. Police discovered that her death was no accident.

Rebecca “Becky” Riddle, 28, was killed by blunt force trauma to her head before she was either thrown or fell through the floor that she was hired to help clean, Kentucky State Police Detective Chad Winn said. A large hole in the floor was partially covered by a piece of metal. Retired KSP Detective Steve Fitts, who originally investigated the case, said there were drag marks on the floor near the hole. Rebecca Riddle had been at work on the day of her death for just 43 minutes before she was killed, Fitts said.

She had not been sexually assaulted, and a clear motive for the crime has not been released.

“She knows too much about something that was going on,” said Rebecca Riddle’s mother, Alma Kawai. “That’s what got her killed.”

Kawai declined to elaborate any further. Kawai remembered her daughter for being big hearted.

Rebecca Riddle was a native of Bowling Green. She loved country music and “could out dance anybody on the dance floor,” Sandy Riddle said about her mom.

Even though Sandy Riddle was just 5 when her mother died, she remembers her mom dancing and her favorite song, Tim McGraw’s “Don’t Take the Girl,” a song about a man whose young wife’s life hangs in the balance after giving birth. The young man pleads with God not to take her from him.

Beth Riddle remembers her father, Lonnie Zackery, coming home, listening to music and crying over Rebecca Riddle’s death. Zackery is currently incarcerated in Fulton County, where he is serving time for drug possession. Zackery was in jail at the time of Rebecca Riddle’s death.

In addition to fathering Beth Riddle, Zackery is also the father of two of Rebecca Riddle’s other children, Jacob and Stacy. Jacob was 8 years old when his mother died. Stacy was 4. Stacy lives in Tennessee. The rest of the children live here.

“We would wake up in the middle of the night screaming for my mom,” said Sandy Riddle, who was living with her paternal grandmother, Mary Page, at the time. Page lives in Russellville.

“I was crying every day and every night for my mom,” Sandy Riddle said.

Sandy Riddle spent several years in therapy, trying to cope with the loss of her mother.

Jacob Riddle also misses his mom and said everyone loved her.

“She was loved dearly, and we miss her,” he said.

Beth Riddle said growing up without her mother was difficult. The kids were pulled in different directions. But in time, they reconnected with one another, Beth Riddle said.

“I want to see somebody charged with murder,” Beth Riddle said.

Her grandmother agreed. Both women want “justice” for Rebecca Riddle.

Rebecca Riddle was laid to rest in Fairview Cemetery, not far from her infant daughter, Secrina Gail Riddle-Womack, who was born May 11, 1985, and died June 17, 1985. On her tombstone are tiny figurines and other momentos her family has left behind.

“I usually change Beck’s flowers on Christmas and her birthday,” her sister Barbara “Bo” Wilson said as she walked from her sister’s to her niece’s gravesites.

“She loved her children,” Wilson said about Rebecca Riddle.

Can you help?

If you have information on this case, call Kentucky State Police at 782-2010. To leave an anonymous tip, call South Central Kentucky Crime Stoppers at 781-2583.