[Devil_Anse]

"I believe that there is a drug connection to the whole Ricci affair. Whether or not it has a connection to ES I don't know yet."

I agree with you.

"If he owed the wrong person money he could be coerced to do a number of things, don't you think?"

THIS is a great point. Who knows what corners Ricci had got himself into, what with being on parole and worried about going back to jail, and being a junkie?

Just as pure speculation, maybe Ricci was forced to take part in someone else's drug operation, in return for being supplied with drugs. There are methamphetamine labs. There are marijuana-growing operations. There is heroin transport. Who knows?

Remember that guy, Richard Dean Miller, that Scaredkat brought up? Scaredkat maintains that this man knew Ricci. (The guy is listed as a sex offender, and looks kind of like Ricci with short hair.) I don't know if it was the same Richard Dean Miller, but there is a federal criminal appeals decision published on the web that describes the conviction, and the overturning of the conviction on procedural grounds, of a Richard Dean Miller--for involvement with methamphetamine production.

[Sherlock]

methamphetamine production...

Reminds me of Angela's good friend Andy Thurber's description of Ricci's behavior on the morning of Jun 5, he was 'going 1000 mph'. Digging here, pounding here, and asking for no help.