Miami-Dade County, Florida – The documentary you are about to watch, aired on April 18, 2012. Titled “FBI Criminal Pursuit – Do You Want To Die?” chronicles the disappearance and search for 9-year old Jimmy Ryce.
It was September 11, 1995 when 9-year-old Jimmy Ryce got off the school bus and began walking the short distance to home. Jimmy never made it home.
Three months later police arrested Juan Carlos Chavez, charging him with the abduction, rape and murder of Jimmy Ryce. The arrest followed an extensive and well publicized search, three months later Chavez’s landlady discovered the boy’s book bag and the murder weapon — a revolver Chavez had stolen from her house — in the trailer where Chavez lived.
Chavez later confessed to police and led them to Jimmy’s remains. Testimony showed Chavez raped the boy, shot him when he tried to escape, then dismembered his body and hid the parts in concrete-covered planters.
The Ryce family, Don, Claudine, Ted and Martha, all vowed to honor Jimmy’s memory. They formed the Jimmy Ryce Center for Victims of Predatory Abductions. They raised money, so they could purchase and donate free bloodhounds to law enforcement agencies around the country. They fought for changes in the laws governing everything from posting pictures of missing children in federal buildings to new state laws.
On November 23, 1998, Chavez was convicted and sentenced to death. Chavez was executed on Feb 12, 2014. Only Jimmy’s father, Don, and half brother, Ted, survived to witness the execution. Claudine died in 2009 from a heart attack. Jimmy’s half sister, Martha, killed herself in Dec 2012.