GUILTY MI - Rosemary Reinel, 79, Sturgis, 20 Sept 2005

[Dark Knight]

(WLKI) The search for an elderly Sturgis woman is continuing in the Rome City, Indiana, area. Police say evidence found in Rosemary Reinel's car supports their suspicions of foul play. Fifty-three-year-old Dannie Gayheart remains incarcerated in Sarasota, Florida as a person of interest in the investigation.

 

[Dark Knight]

(WLKI) The search for an elderly Sturgis woman is continuing in the Rome City, Indiana, area. Police say evidence found in Rosemary Reinel's car supports their suspicions of foul play. Fifty-three-year-old Dannie Gayheart remains incarcerated in Sarasota, Florida as a person of interest in the investigation.

 

[fourboys]

FBI takes over case of missing Sturgis woman

October 24, 2005

The FBI is taking over the search for a missing Sturgis woman. Seventy-nine year-old Rosemary Reinel disappeared September 20th.

According to witnesses, Reinel told friends, including Dannie Gayheart, that she had withdrawn a substantial amount of money from her bank account in preparation for a trip to Florida. She disappeared from her Sturgis apartment complex the next day.

Dannie Gayheart, was present for that statement, witnesses say. He had recently been released from prison and was staying with a friend at an apartment building across from Reinell.

Gayheart told police that Reinell offered to let him use her car while she took a bus to Florida.

Police arrested Gayheart in Sarasota, Florida, where they also found Reinell's car. They say evidence in the car points to foul play.

http://wwmt.com/engine.pl?station=wwmt&id=...kout_local.html

 

[jodierenee]

I'm thinking she nevery even made it out of his apartment that one night. Whatever he did to her to make her feel "woozy" worked, and she died, either by accident, or on purpose. I'm sure whatever he did to her was because of her money in the bank...I doubt she ever even made it in her car.

 

[fourboys]

Body found could be missing Sturgis woman

Updated: 11/01/2005

LaGrange County, IN - As of Tuesday night Indiana State Police are guarding a cornfield in rural LaGrange County, where a body was found buried, possibly that of a missing elderly woman.

A farmer discovered the body Tuesday night in his cornfield in northeastern LaGrange County, near the state line.

It will remain buried there until Wednesday morning, when police will properly dig it up.

The body has not been positively identified, but police believe it is 79-year-old Rosemary Reinel of Sturgis.

Reinel went missing September 22nd, when she was supposed to be headed to Florida to visit relatives.

She was supposedly making the trip with a man by the name of Dannie Gayheart, who showed up in Sarasota in Reinel's car without her.

Gayheart is being held for a parole violation for leaving Michigan. He has not yet been charged with the woman's disappearance.

A forensic anthropologist will help police unearth the body Wednesday morning.

http://www.wndu.com/news/112005/news_45701.php

 

[Dark Knight]

WLKI.COM - Crime scene investigators worked this morning in a LaGrange County field where a human body was discovered Tuesday. A few yards south of County Road 800-North in a corn field, investigators worked beneath a large white tent as a T-V news helicopter hovered overhead. An anthropologist was summoned to help recover the body, believed to be that of 79-year-old Rosemary Reinel, who was reported missing from Sturgis September 22nd. A farmer who was harvesting corn from the field yesterday afternoon accidentally discovered the shallow grave when his corn picker partially unearthed the body. Police aren't saying much about the find, but plan to meet with the media on Thursday morning. Early last month, Sturgis Police said evidence found in Reinel's car supported their suspicions of foul play. The vehicle was recovered in Sarasota, Florida, and Reinel's next door neighbor - 53-year-old Dannie Gayhart - was arrested there on charges he violated his parole from Michigan. Authorities say Gayheart told them that Reinel left her car at a Kalamazoo bus station to pick up, and that he thought she had taken a bus to Florida. The Kalamazoo office of the F-B-I is assisting Sturgis, Indiana State Police and LaGrange County authorities in the investigation.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

Remains could be that of missing Sturgis woman.

HOWE -- The body of a missing Sturgis woman may have been discovered just five miles and just across the state line from where she lived.
Police from Michigan and Indiana and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation were at the scene on Wednesday.

The woman, Rosemary Reinel, 79, was reported missing on Sept. 22. Police said she was last seen alive on Sept. 20 when she left her apartment with a neighbor, Dannie Gayheart, 53, for a trip to Florida.

Farmers harvesting corn Tuesday afternoon in a field at County Road 250 East and County Road 820 North -- State Line Road -- north of Howe in LaGrange County, discovered the body.

On Wednesday, a forensic anthropologist from the University of Indianapolis excavated the body from a shallow grave.

"The anthropologist will be the one searching the area, trying to recover the body as well as any evidence that may be found at the site," said Sturgis police Sgt. Luis Rosado, who was at the scene.

An autopsy will be conducted to determine if the body is Reinel's.

Police in Florida located Reinel's car in a parking lot on Sept. 22. Police said there was evidence of foul play in her car.

Florida police tracked down Gayheart, last month, hiding in an ex-girlfriend's apartment in the Sarasota area.

Gayheart, who was on parole for convictions of perjury and obtaining money under false pretenses, remained in police custody in Florida on Wednesday on charges unrelated to Reinel's disappearance. Police continue to call Gayheart a "person of interest" in the Reinel case.

More: http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/2005/11/03/local.20051103-sbt-LOCL-A1-Body_unearthed.sto

 

[Montanagirl]

If it is Rosemary and that SOB killed her, may GOD have a fitting punishment in store for the piece of garbage he is.

 

[fourboys]

Body ID'd as Sturgis woman

Thursday, November 3, 2005

A body discovered Tuesday in a LaGrange, Ind., cornfield has been positively identified as Rosemary Zarza Reinel, a 70-year-old Sturgis woman missing from her apartment since Sept. 20 after telling her friends she had ``cleaned out'' her bank account but was postponing a planned car trip to Florida.
Police, who used dental records to confirm Reinel's identity, now recast their investigation from a missing-person case to a suspected homicide. As well, the location of the dead woman just 50 feet across the border inside northern Indiana could lead to a death-penalty case.

Continued at link:

http://www.mlive.com/news/kzgazette/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1131034892117300.xml&coll=7

 

[Dark Knight]

WLKI.COM - The body found in a LaGrange County cornfield near the Indiana-Michigan border on Tuesday afternoon has been officially identified as that of 79 year old Rosemary Reinel of Sturgis, Michigan. She had been missing since September 22nd and Indiana State Police say the investigation has changed from a missing person case to a murder investigation. That confirms suspicions raised by police a couple of weeks ago who feared Reinel was the victim of foul play. LaGrange County Coroner Bruce Coney says Reinel was identified through the use of dental records. LaGrange County Prosecutor Jeff Wible says the Sheriffs Department and the State Police have only had the case for less than 48 hours and they should have a better understanding of the facts by sometime next week. Wible says Reinel's former neighbor, Dannie Gayheart, is still a person of interest. Gayheart is incarcerated in Sarasota, Florida on a unrelated charge. He formerly lived in Rome City before moving to Sturgis. Reinel's body was removed from the cornfield last night. It will be examined by pathology as well as forensic anthropology experts through an autopsy in the near future. Indiana State Police Sergeant Rodger Popplewell says facts concerning cause of death or other facts about the case remain unknown. Anyone with information concerning Rosemary Reinel's death are encouraged to contact Indiana State Police, Sturgis Police or the Kalamazoo office of the F.B.I.. The body was discovered Tuesday afternoon by a farmer who was harvesting corn.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

A body that was found in rural LaGrange County has been positively identified as a missing Sturgis woman, 79-year-old Rosemary Reinel. Reinel disappeared in September.

Police are still trying to figure where, when and how she was killed.

“We have no reason to believe that she voluntarily went to field under her own power,” said Wible.

Police have been following 53-year-old Dannie Gayhear, a man who neighbors say Reinel had talked about driving to Florida with.

In late September, Reinel’s car was found in Sarasota, Floriday but she wasn't

Dannie Gayheart is being held in Florida for violating his Michigan parole. He's considered a main suspect, since he's the last person Reinel was last seen with.

“It is my understanding that they were neighbors in Sturgis, Michigan. They were certainly acquainted with each other,” said Wible.

Rosemary Reinel was 79-years-old

Friends say they will remember Rosemary Reinel as someone who would have died fighting.

“I know she's not the kind of woman to stand up and be killed somebody had to done without her realizing they were going to do it. She was a fighter if it was to come to her life,” says Alice Hurley, Reinel’s neighbor.

Police say they hope to release more details in the case next week.

More: http://www.wndu.com/news/112005/news_45745.php

 

[Norma]

http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051104/NEWS01/511040326/1001/news

Dannie Gayheart, 53, a former Rome City resident who was living in an apartment near Reinel before she was missing, was identified as a "person of interest" by LaGrange County Prosecutor Jeff Wible

 

[Dark Knight]

(WLKI.COM) Determining the cause of Rosemary Reinel's death is taking longer than originally expected. In a statement released today by Indiana State Police, an autopsy was conducted last week on the body of the 79 year old Sturgis woman who was found in a shallow grave near the state line. But due to the condition of the body, police say pathologists are conducting additional tests to help determine the cause of Reinel's death. A LaGrange County farmer harvesting corn discovered the body November 1st. Reinel was reported missing by family members in September. State Police Sergeant Rodger Popplewell says a former neighbor of the victim, Dannie Gayheart, is still a so-called person of interest. Gayheart remains lodged in Sarasota County, Florida. LaGrange County Prosecutor Jeff Wible says investigations such as these are extremely time consuming and complicated.

 

[OkieGranny]

From 2010:

http://www.sturgisjournal.com/article/20100609/NEWS/306099976

Gayheart has served about three years of a life sentence after a 2007 conviction in the murder of Rosemary Reinel of Sturgis...

Reinel was last seen alive on Sept. 20, 2005. Sometime that month, Reinel had decided to move to Florida, according to court testimony. Gayheart, who lived in Reinel’s apartment complex, heard of her plans and asked Reinel to let him drive with her to Florida. Reinel agreed and withdrew nearly $3,000 from her bank account to pay for expenses along the way. After learning that Gayheart was on parole, Reinel changed her mind about allowing him to join her.

About six weeks later, her decomposed body was discovered in a northern Indiana cornfield, less than 100 feet from the Michigan-Indiana border.