Years after horrific Elizabeth City crime, show to revisit victim's story

By Frank Roberts, correspondent

ELIZABETH CITY

There were $5,000 life-insurance policies on each of his girlfriend's four children, and William T. Riddick wanted the money.

So on Jan. 12, 1984, Riddick set a fire in the Oak Grove Avenue home he shared with the children and their mother, Ruth Cowell.

Four-year-old Lateyia was killed. A brother, Don, suffered first-degree burns to his face. And 5-year-old Latoyia was burned on 85 percent of her body, including severe burns to her arms, legs, face and head. A sister escaped uninjured.

Riddick was convicted of first-degree murder, arson and assault, and Latoyia Cowell, now 29, has spent the year s since undergoing hundreds of operations to fix the damage he caused.

Cowell first told her story to talk-show host Montel Williams a decade after the fire, when she was 16. She returns to the show today - the day before Williams retires after 17 years - to be recognized as one of the show's most memorable guests.

"She... is now a mother and motivated even more to share her story and help others," the "Montel" show's Web site states.

It's now more than 20 years after the fire, but Cowell's memory of Riddick - whom she and her siblings called their step-father - and that day are always with her.

"When it happened, I was asleep," she said. "I remember waking up and smelling smoke. I remember running into the kitchen. My step dad was still in the house. I ran into him and he grabbed me. The living room was on fire and he tossed me in.

"The first thing I remember after that was waking up in the Shriners hospital in Cincinnati." Cowell said her face was literally burned off. " My eyes, my mouth, everything."

Cowell spent a year in the Shriners Hospitals for Children in Cincinnati, later spending months at Albemarle Hospital, where she was finally able to see her family. All of her expenses, including her treatments and medicine, have been covered by the Shriners, she said.

They would also later help Cowell with her scoliosis.

Today, she makes an effort to spread the word about all the good the Shriners do; she often speaks to schools and clubs for the Elizabeth City Shrine Club.

"I'll go anywhere to talk about them," she said.

"Without them," she added. "I wouldn't have made it."

But Cowell hasn't had it easy. Even after 420 surgeries, she said, she still gets the occasional stare. But she makes the most of her encounters.

"I go shopping and people stare," she said. "You just get used to it. A lot of people will ask me what happened. That's a lot better than just being stared at. Kids, especially, ask about my burns. They're direct, and I talk to them."

She credits her aunt, Rose Owens, for helping her get through the rough times.

"Life was difficult at first, but I never felt sorry for myself," she said. "My aunt wouldn't let me. She made me do everything everyone else did. If my brother and sister went out, my aunt would say, 'Get out.' "

Said Owens: "I've always worked with her. From the beginning of the day to the end of the day, I needed her to always know she was always loved and always accepted.

"She's my hero."

As for Riddick, who had a history of abusing Cowell and her siblings even before the fire, he remains at the Albemarle Correctional Institution in Stanly County, serving a life sentence.

"He's never apologized for any of his actions," Cowell said. "You don't have remorse when you don't have a heart. His only sorrow is that it didn't come out the way he had planned - for all of us to die."