Decades-old case of teenager murdered in LaPorte re-investigated for new book
LOCAL
Kim Kilbride
Special to The South Bend Tribune, South Bend, IN
Published 12:07 p.m. ET Jan. 31, 2025
Hillel Levin, author of “Submerged,” will talk about his investigation into the 1993 killing of Rayna Rison in LaPorte from noon to 1 p.m. on Sat., Feb. 1 at Flourish Books & Plants onU.S. 12 in New Buffalo, Mich.
A new book by a Chicago-area investigative journalist raises questions about the guilt of the man convicted of the high-profile killing of a LaPorte teenager in 1993.
Hillel Levin’s “Submerged: A Cold Case, an Innocent Man Condemned, and One Family’s Darkest Secret” was published in November. It chronicles the homicide of Rayna Rison, a case that received national media attention, and Levin says uncovers new evidence that shows Jason Tibbs, Rison’s ex-boyfriend who was convicted of her murder and sentenced to40 years in prison in 2014, should be exonerated.
Levin says his investigation reveals new evidence in the crime against Rison’s brother-in-law, Raymond McCarty, who had been convicted of molesting her when she was 12. McCarty was indicted by a grand jury in her death in 1998. But after a newly elected prosecutor decided there wasn’t enough evidence against him, he was released in August 1999. He died in jail, where he was being held on unrelated charges, in 2018.
Arland Boyd, a retired Indiana State Police sergeant who was involved in the first investigation of Rison’s disappearance and murder, confirmed he’s been contacted about the case in recent months by investigators with The Exoneration Justice Clinic at the University of Notre Dame. The director of the clinic told The Tribune the organization’s policy is not to confirm or deny an ongoing review of any specific case.
New investigation, new evidence
A 16-year-old LaPorte High School student, Rison was last seen alive at her after-school job at Pine Lake Animal Hospital on March 26, 1993. Her body was found April 27, 1993, in a pond north of U.S. 20 off of Range Road in LaPorte. An autopsy found no evidence of trauma on her body. Ultimately, her cause of death was listed as asphyxia from strangulation. And her manner of death was ruled a homicide.
Levin became interested in the case in 2006 when he was conducting research for another book, called “In With the Devil,” which was published in 2008 with James Keene, about Wabash, Ind., suspected serial killer Larry Hall. Hall was convicted of killing a young woman in Illinois and had many other purported victims, Levin said, including Rison. Years later, the book was turned into a series on Apple TV+ Called “Black Bird.”
“Sometime after 2013,” Levin said recently from his home in Oak Park, Illinois, “I was poking around (on the Rison case). I was shocked when I learned that Jason Tibbs was convicted, so I started looking at the (newspaper) clips, delving further, reached out to Tibbs … listened to his story.” By 2022, Levin said, he couldn’t get the case off his mind, so he started investigating it full-time. He reviewed thousands of pages of documents that Tibbs’ attorney turned over to him, obtained more files from the police and courts, and interviewed dozens of people.
“The information was very accessible,” Levin said, “It’s not like I went to the ends of the earth.”
He says his investigation uncovered evidence that points to McCarthy. One example involves a drug screen conducted after Rison’s autopsy that showed an unusually high concentration of isopropanol, commonly known as isopropyl alcohol, in her system. Levin says he learned an industrial type of isopropyl alcohol called IPA – more concentrated and toxic than rubbing alcohol – was used at the foundry where McCarty worked at the time. And a then-co-worker saw McCarty go back into the foundry the day Rison went missing after he punched out. “If Ray had soaked a rag in IPA,” Levin wrote in ‘Submerged,’” and held it over Rayna’s nose and mouth, it would have quickly incapacitated her.” Other new evidence, Levin said, includes McCarty’s connection to a potential accomplice. He also collected much evidence, he says, that supports Tibbs’ innocence.
The case against Tibbs
According to Tribune archives, during Tibbs’ trial, Rickey Hammons, then an inmate at the Wabash Correctional Facility in 2008, called investigators, saying he was hiding in a pole barn around the time of Rison’s homicide when Tibbs and another man, Eric Freeman, drove into the building. He said the trunk lid on the car they were in opened, and he saw a body that he later learned was Rison's.
Authorities then contacted Freeman. Investigators claimed in court that Freeman told them Rison had finished her shift at Pine Lake Animal Hospital when he and Tibbs showed up in the parking lot. Freeman claimed Tibbs and Rison got into an argument over his desire to get back together with her. Freeman further claimed that Rison got into the car with Tibbs and Freeman, and they drove to Fail Road, just north of the city.
Freeman told investigators that Rison and Tibbs got out of the car and kept arguing, then started hitting each other before he saw Tibbs strangle her, according to court documents. Levin says his investigation revealed evidence that supports Tibbs’ innocence, including multiple witnesses who place him at a trailer park at the time of the crime.
The Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled against a request for a new trial for Tibbs, and the Indiana Supreme Court has affirmed his conviction and refused to hear his case. Any “next and final appeal,” Levin said, “must be based on new evidence that proves innocence.”
An inmate at Westville Correctional Facility, Tibbs’ earliest possible release date is April 24, 2031.
With “Submerged,” Levin said, he wrote it in stages. “It’s a big book,” he said. “I felt an overwhelming responsibility to make sure there were no loose ends left in this investigation.”
Asked whether he thinks Levin’s conclusions about the Rison case are accurate, Boyd, the retired state police sergeant said, “I won’t say he got it right, but I think he did a great job” with his investigation.
While guarded about sharing his personal stance on the case today, Boyd said, “At the time of the indictment of McCarty, I was confident that he was the (guilty) party, at least one (guilty party), that was involved.”
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