A woman was raped and murdered four decades ago. Now, a man is behind bars in Broward

At age 32, Evelyn Marie Fisher-Bamforth was sexually assaulted and murdered in her Miramar mobile home. After a more-than-40-year hunt, police finally have someone behind bars in connection with Miramar police’s oldest cold case.

Ronald Eugene Richards was booked Tuesday into the Broward main jail on first-degree murder and sexual battery charges after being indicted by a grand jury back in December. The 75-year-old was already locked up in Ohio at the time when he was extradited to South Florida.

Richards, who lived in the same mobile home community as Fisher-Bamforth, was originally a suspect in the 1980 murder, Miramar homicide detective Jonathan Zeller told the Miami Herald. However, there wasn’t enough evidence at the time to make an arrest.

Detectives zeroed in on Richards back in the ‘80s when investigators from Volusia County phoned them about Richards being a suspect in a brutal rape and attempted murder. When questioned by Miramar detectives, Richards denied knowing Fisher-Bamforth or ever visiting her.

He ultimately was convicted of the 1981 Volusia County attempted murder and sexual battery. Richards was housed in a Florida prison until 2020, when he transferred to Ohio, where he had been sentenced in 1975 for a manslaughter. At the time of Fisher-Bamforth’s murder, he was on parole for the Ohio charge.

In 2021, new DNA technology helped crack the cold case — and link Richards to the crime, Zeller said. The advancements showed that there is a 1 in 5.5 billion chance that the perpetrator doesn’t share the same DNA profile as Richards.

Zeller told the Miami Herald he’s glad the cold case is now making its way through the justice system.

“It doesn’t matter if it happened in 1980,” he added. “No one can hide anymore with DNA technology.”

The case also shows that no matter how much time passed by, Fisher-Bamforth wasn’t forgotten.

Widower John Bamforth, 77, recounted his life with “Ev” or “Evie,” as he called Fisher-Bamforth, after the indictment in December. He told reporters how they met at a bar in Canada, near a hospital where Fisher-Bamforth worked. The couple moved to the Cayman Islands and later to South Florida.

Bamforth’s voice cracked as he spoke about his wife while sniffling. His wife’s death, he said, changed the way he looked at life. He’s no longer the trusting person he used to be.

“I don’t believe in this closure thing,” Bamforth told reporters. “One never has closure... But certainly justice for Evelyn is the most important.”