Steven Augusta Ridge, 59, is scheduled to stand trial beginning Monday in Dallas County on charges of capital murder and sexual assault, nearly three decades after 15-year-old Tamika Cromer's body was found severely burned under a bridge near the Trinity River. Cromer had been missing for four days before she was discovered on a February afternoon in 1996, her body left in a secluded wooded area in southern Dallas. It took until 2023 for DNA evidence to bring investigators to Ridge's door.
According to KERA News, Cromer's body was found with a bra wrapped around her neck, along with a cigarette butt, a bag of cocaine and a gas can nearby. Her autopsy indicated she suffered blunt-force injuries, strangulation and thermal burns, and showed evidence of sexual assault by a male. Ridge's indictment alleges he caused her death by asphyxiating her with a brassiere, a ligature, his hands and another unknown object before setting her on fire.
A DNA Match Three Years in the Making
DNA evidence collected during Cromer's autopsy helped the Dallas County Medical Examiner's office and the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences find a likely match through the Combined DNA Index System, the report states. Forensic genetic advances, paired with the Dallas County District Attorney's Office cold case unit and its sexual assault kit initiative, made building a case against Ridge possible after decades of dormancy. Ridge was reportedly linked to the crime through that DNA evidence.
He was arrested in October 2023 and held in the Dallas County jail on a $2.5 million bond, which was later reduced to $1 million, per the same account. County documents also cite a separate arrest of Ridge for not complying with sex offender registration requirements. Dallas County District Attorney's Office spokesperson Claire Crouch said that District Attorney John Creuzot and prosecutors could not comment while the case remains ongoing. Ridge's attorney, Messina Madson, was unavailable for comment before the story's publication deadline.
A Pattern of Prior Allegations
Beyond the Cromer case, Ridge is accused of sexually assaulting two other women, including one assault alleged in 1988 and another involving his former wife in 1992, the outlet's report notes. That former wife, the mother of the couple's two sons, was also allegedly assaulted by Ridge. He is separately accused of assaulting another former wife in 2016.
Ridge's record also includes a 1997 car wreck in which he was the driver and his two sons were killed, along with a history of drug and alcohol use and related arrests. His blood alcohol level was recorded at .10 in connection with an intoxication manslaughter case, for which he served 180 days in the Dallas County jail.
Cold Cases Cracked by Genetic Science
Cromer's case fits a broader pattern of decades-old Texas homicides reopened through advances in forensic genetics. A Texas nursing student's 1980 kidnapping and murder was solved after 44 years when genetic genealogy helped investigators identify a 78-year-old suspect, according to Good Morning America. Audacy also covered a decades-old Texas cold case, as Audacy reported.
Recent DNA and ballistic evidence also linked a suspect to the notorious 1991 Yogurt Shop Murders in Austin, per KFOR. And in Arlington, a DNA breakthrough led to an arrest in the cold-case killing of a Texas real estate agent, according to WSBT. Together, these cases underscore how preserved forensic evidence and modern DNA technology continue to reopen investigations once presumed unsolvable.
