A decade ago today, this boy died from a savage beating. His killer remains unknown.

When the area’s residents saw Ryan Scott’s little face staring back at them from photos on the front pages of newspapers after his death in 1998, a collective cry of disbelief was released from many in the community.

How could a young life so full of potential suddenly be gone?

Then, the news came that made everyone take pause.

Ryan Scott

Not only was Ryan dead, but his death was brutal — he received 39 different blows to his tiny body. Former Cuyahoga County Coroner Elizabeth Balraj later determined that at least two of the blows to his head were so severe they caused his brain to hemorrhage.

The autopsy report made it clear that Ryan had been abused, and his death was ruled a homicide.

Today marks the 10th anniversary of Ryan’s death, a tragic event in which his killer has never been brought to justice.

And while many may have forgotten the heartbreaking story as the decade passed, it never left the heart of one woman.

Kelly Jackson, now 25, was 15 the day her brother died. She said she wants to make sure no one forgets him.

“That little boy was my heart,” she said. “I would have done anything for him. You know, I was his big sister, I was supposed to protect him.”

Life cut short

Jackson was not with Ryan that day in March 1998 — a day after he was found not breathing in the foster home of Frank and Vickie Lowery on Oliver Street in Sheffield Lake. That’s because Ryan and his siblings were separated among several different homes after authorities felt their parents were raising them in an unsafe environment.

Back then, Ryan was the youngest child of Sherri Yost and Brett Scott, an unmarried couple who admittedly were having difficulty raising their children. At one point, a family friend, Pedro Alarcon, even sought guardianship of the youngsters, but he was killed in an automobile accident weeks after filing the paperwork.

Alarcon’s death left Yost, Scott and their children on the brink. In January 1998, Ryan and his sisters were removed from their parents’ care and placed in two different foster homes after a caseworker from Lorain County Children Services found them living in squalor in a Lorain home.

The Florida Avenue home was littered with cat feces, used toilet paper, rotten food and garbage. There was no running water or electricity in the home, and the children were sleeping on the floor, police said at that time.

Ryan and two sisters were sent to the Oliver Street home, while two other sisters were taken to another foster home. Jackson, who is not Scott’s daughter, was sent to live with other relatives.

But within three months of taking him from his family, Ryan was dead.

No answers

After Ryan’s death, the Sheffield Lake Police Department launched an intense investigation. But to this day, no one has ever been arrested.

At the time, the Lowerys told authorities they were furniture shopping — leaving Ryan at home with two of his biological sisters and Vickie Lowery’s two teenage daughters — in the hours before Ryan was found unconscious.

Scrutiny focused on the Lowerys, who hardly presented the picture of the perfect foster parents.

North Ridgeville police had responded to 14 calls from or about the couple in 1992 and 1993 — records that Children Services reviewed before approving the couple as foster parents in 1995.

Six of the calls were complaints from others about the Lowerys while eight were from the Lowerys to report that they were the victims of harassment or vandalism.

In July 1993, both Frank and Vickie Lowery were arrested by Elyria police after a scuffle with officers on Broad Street. Frank Lowery pleaded no contest to a disorderly conduct charge, and Vickie Lowery entered the same plea to resisting arrest, according to court records.

Plus, Vickie Lowery’s daughter, who was 15 when Ryan died, was charged with a juvenile count of felonious assault the year before Ryan’s death. The teen, along with her 13-year-old sister, were watching Ryan in the hours before he fell unconscious.

Police Capt. Tony Campo said Ryan’s case is still considered open.

“Obviously someone knows something, someone saw something,” he said. “It was ruled a homicide because that little boy did not just die on his own. But if you want me to tell you exactly what it’s going to take to crack this thing, I just can’t. I don’t know.”

Campo said he won’t call it quits on the case, although he admits he doesn’t know if the right break to solve it ever will come.

“I can’t just say that — not with a case like this,” he said. “You still have to hope for that closure. You know, people get older, they remember things differently and people want to start talking. We’ll drop something small like a theft or something. Not the homicide of a child.”

Still, Jackson wonders how much of that is true.

She said she periodically calls Campo. However, after each call ends with no news, she said she can’t help but wonder if anyone still cares.

“I just don’t want them to put this on a shelf somewhere, collecting dust,” she said.

Attempts to reconnect with Ryan’s parents have been unsuccessful. The few distant relatives that are still around said they lost touch with the family years ago. Some said Yost moved to southern Ohio after the death of her mother several years back.

A search of several public records databases has uncovered numerous different addresses for Scott. However, none appear to be current. Campo said he, too, lost touch with Yost, not having the need to talk to her for some years.

Jackson said it’s hard for her mother to talk to the media about the case.

Ten years ago, everyone spent so much time talking about the negative that they forget Yost was a woman who loved her children and lost one too soon, Jackson said.

A decade of change

A lot has happened since the day Ryan died.

Yost and Scott were charged with five counts of endangering children and served time in prison as a result. And, while their repeated pleas for justice for their son initially went unanswered, they were somewhat vindicated when they filed a wrongful death suit against the county and the Lowerys. It was settled out of court for $150,000.

And, absent an arrest or any kind of judicial justice for Ryan, some would argue some good has come out of the sad saga.

In October 2000, Ryan’s five sisters, Ashley, Brittney, Kayla, Stephanie and Lindsey, who was born more than a year after Ryan’s death, were placed in the care of a couple in another county. As luck would have it, the couple won a portion of a $75 million Ohio Lottery jackpot — giving them the wherewithal needed to adopt all five girls.

The children’s adoptive parents declined to comment for this story, but they did say the girls are doing well.

Also, Patti-Jo Burtnett, spokewoman for Children Services, said a lot of policy changes in the way cases are investigated, how foster parents are certified and how children are subsequently placed in their homes. And, while it may not satisfy those who want closure in Ryan’s case, Burtnett said no other child has died in foster care under similar circumstances since.

As for the Sheffield Lake Police Department, Campo said Ryan’s unsolved case puts every one he can solve into perspective.

“It makes the little cases mean so much more, because in the back of your mind you always remember the one you just can’t bring to closure,” he said.

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.

 

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