PITTSBURGH -- A Butler County woman, acquitted on charges that she murdered a friend in Panama City, Panama, two years ago, is due home in Zelienople on Thursday.
Debra Ridgley, of Zelienople, had been accused of stabbing, dismembering, and removing the organs of Toni Grossi-Abrams, a Carrick native, before trying to burn the corpse.
Surveillance video from the spring 2007 case showed the two women in a fistfight prior to Abrams' death.
Ridgley had rented an apartment owned by Grossi-Abrams.
After spending more than two years in a Panamanian prison, Ridgley was acquitted over the weekend.
"I was happy and joyful for the family and my son, Joe. He's been down there on numerous occasions from the time this started, and he's still down there now, and the family has went through a lot of traumatic and emotional experiences over it," said George Barcheski, Ridgley's ex-husband.
Police continue searching for two Colombian nationals believed to be accomplices in Grossi-Abram's death.
Prosecutors maintain that Ridgley, along with the two Colombians, dismembered the body of Grossi-Abrams and put it in a suitcase before taking it to a soccer field and attempting to set it on fire.
"She's a nice, wonderful person -- give you the shirt off her back. How this happened, I don't know because I wasn't there," said Barcheski of his ex-wife.
Ridgley is expected to return home on Thursday, along with her son.
"He is very concerned, and she has grandchildren, he has two sons and a daughter now, I guess they asked where their grandmother is," said Barcheski.
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