This case happened on September 20, 2010 on 88 Reynolds Road, which is east on Highway 82 past the intersection with 1417. Its now called Reynolds Lane btw.
There isn’t much on the victims, but I’ll give you what I found.
Misty Ballou was 25 at the time of her death, she had one child, and her sister was Cassandra Ballou who was also unfortunately in the fire as well. Cassandra was 28, she had two children and was pregnant at the time as well. The third victim was Brian Ritchie, he lived in the house with Misty and was 30 at the time of his death. There’s not really too much coverage on Brian, but in his obituary it says he enjoyed hunting and fishing, and that he worked at his dad’s auto body shop. There’s actually a tad more, but I’ll get to that near the end.
Cassandra and Misty via KXII
After responders got to the fire, the bodies of Misty, Cassandra, and Brian were all found inside. Brian had suffered blunt and sharp force trauma and had multiple gunshot wounds, Misty was shot several times, and Cassandra had been stabbed multiple times and shot once. It was also discovered that accelerant was used in multiple places inside of the home.
Brian Ritchie via Legacy.com
When investigations were done on the inside of the house after finding that this was now a homicide investigation, the Grayson County Sheriff’s Deputy Ricky Wheeler said that the SO had contacted the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive’s Agency to investigate. They had a K-9 unit and access to technology that isn’t readily available in town. The sheriff’s office also got help from the Texas Rangers and was given permission to use their forensic labs in Garland and Austin. In total, there were about 110 pieces of potential evidence taken from the scene and over a does people were interviewed.
As of 2015 the investigation was active and ongoing, but still 10 years later theres no news of a person of interest or any arrests made in relation to the murders or the arson.
The Ballou family has gotten over 1,000 signatures on a petition to urge the sheriff’s office to cooperate with TV shows like “Cold Case”, but nothing has happened of yet. The Ballou family was also contacted by the Justice Riders in Fannin county that also rode for Jennifer Harris who attended a small memorial for the two sisters and offered their support to the familly.
So as I mentioned before there was a bit more I had to mention about Brian Ritchie. I saw this Facebook post on a page called Grayson County News, and this post is from August 12th of 2018. It bring to light a number of cold cases in the area, theres Thelma Totten, Brent Gutheinz, Theresa Guiderbaldi, and Brian’s own case. But it mentions something I hadn’t read in any of the articles I found. The post says that the murders were drug related because of Brian Ritchie’s criminal record, so of course I had to look it up. And just. Wow.
Brian was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and criminal mischief on May 4th, 1998 plead guilty. He got 5 years of probation and 120 hours of community service.
January 14th 1999, he was found guilty of burglary and sentenced to 7 years probation and 240 hours of community service.
June 29th he was charged with posession of a controlled substance less than a gram. Guilty, 5 years probation, 120 hours of community service.
Feburary 25th of 2000, he was charged with aggrivated kidnapping, and sentenced to 10 years probation.
There were some appeals made to this if I read the records right, he lost a handfull of years of probation and was required to take anger management classes.
So because he lived with Misty Ballou, I decided to check her records as well.
Her’s start on August 4th 2002 with a DWI, she gets 180 days in jail and probation for 2 years.
On September 8th she’s charged with theft, gets probation for a year and 40 hours of community service, it looks like there was somthing else she had for a year but I couldn’t find out what it meant.
July 8th 2002, she get charged with possession of prescription drugs (June 12th 2003)
October 24th 2003 she gets charged with marijuana possession and possession of a controlled substance, get probation for 6 years and 160 community service hours. She got the marijuana charge down to 5 years and it looks like the other was changed to rehab for a year.
Her last charge is possession of a dangerous drug on september 7th, 2008 and sentenced to 30 days it looks like.
I was really kinda shocked, because all you see in articles is just nice things about the girls, and well. I checked Cassandra.
July 22, 1999 - Manufacture/Delivery of a Controlled Substance with an additional code I couldnt find. 5 years probation after $5,000 bond
April 27th 2000- Minor in posession of Alcoholic beverage, jailed for 3 or 4 days.
November 20th, 2000, evading arest using a vehicle,was 2 years but on a $5,000 bond she got county jail 6 days
May 7th, 2000 Abandon Endanger Child Criminal Negligence,2 years jail with a $5,000 bond. 5 years probation and 120 hours community service
May 7th, 2000 Unauthorized use of vehicle, 5 years probation and 120 community service hours. 17 days straight jail time.
Febuary 27th, 2001 marijuana posession, evading arrest 180days in county jail and 2 years
January 16th, 2005 theft by check, 180 days in jail
Feb 11th, 2005 theft 55-1,500, 180days
Jan 31st, 2005 forgery financial instrument, 7 years
July 16, 2005 marijuana posession, 7 years
Jan 18th, 2005, theft by check, 7 years
May 16th, 2005 posession of a controlled substance, 7 years
March 2nd, 2005 burglary of habitation, 7 years
Any information regarding the case should be sent to the Grayson County Sheriff's Office at 903-813-4200 or through their online tipline.
Sources: KXII ( 1, 2), Herald Democrat, Grayson County’s Judicial Record search