It’s been 7 weeks since Joanne Ringer disappeared from her Clarksburg home and Berkshire County District Attorney David Capeless says the case is now being investigated as a homicide with her recently deceased husband, Chad Reidy, as the sole suspect.

Spectrum News spoke with Reidy one week before his apparent suicide.

“My greatest fear is that she’s going to come home a shell of a person, that something terrible has happened to her,” Reidy said on March 31.

Capeless believes something terrible did happen to Jo Ringer, but says Reidy is the one who did it.

“We have approached this as a homicide investigation and we have considered Jo Ringer’s husband, Chad Reidy, as the sole suspect,” Capeless said.

Two weeks before Reidy’s apparent suicide, he told Spectrum News he was waiting for Jo come home and even posted a sign on his door asking her to call him.

“It kills me because I can hear her voice,” Reidy said in that March interview.

Capeless won’t say why Reidy is a suspect, but he’s asking for information from people who may have seen Ringer’s green Volkswagen Jetta in the Easthampton area, Reidy, or Reidy’s ex-girlfriend Laura Reilly, on March 2 and 3.

Reilly was arraigned Friday morning on charges she misled investigators by lying to them about Reidy.

On Wednesday, March 15, authorities found Ringer’s Jetta 75 miles away in Easthampton. They believe Reidy is the one who drove it there in “an effort to misdirect investigative efforts.”

Reilly told police she dropped Reidy off at his car in Northampton, but police say she was lying because surveillance video captures her giving him a ride back to Clarksburg.

Reilly pleaded not guilty to three counts of misleading police, and was released on $1,500 bail. She’ll appear back in court on May 22.

Joanne’s daughter, Savannah Ringer, still hopes her mother will be found alive, but that hope is fading.

“It’s heartbreaking, but at the same time I’d rather have closure than nothing at all,” she said. “I’d rather know what happened than not know at all.”

She didn’t know Reidy well, but says her mom’s Facebook messages led her to think he was abusing her.

The DA is asking hunters and hikers to be observant and aware in wooded areas around Clarksburg and Easthampton, but ask that people do not search for Jo’s body.

Anyone with information can contact the Berkshire County DA’s office at (413) 499-1112.