WA WA - Ronda Reynolds, 33, Lewis County, 13 December 1998

[nanny2five]

and re-issued again.
http://tdn.com/news/state-and-regional/washington/article_a72e9404-ffe6-11e0-99ba-001cc4c002e0.html

 

[LotsaLatte]

Prosecutor: No charges in 1998 Toledo homicide

http://tdn.com/news/local/article_683d2346-00c2-11e1-9325-001cc4c002e0.html

 

[kemo]

There is no question that, if this was a suicide, it was a rather strange one. Anyone familiar with True Crime knows that the way "murder staged to look like a hand gun suicide" is detected by comparing the position of the gun with the trajectory of the bullet. In this case, however, the First Responders moved the body and the hand gun before there were any photos so no one was exactly sure of the position of the body or the location of the gun. From what I can tell, it would be "unusual" for the gun and body to be positioned as the First Responed remembered it based on the know trajectory of the bullet; but not impossible. Thus the evidence could not "rule out" suicide even though there was definte cause for doubt.

 

[passionflower]

at 10pm EST
48 HOURS with Ann Rule
on Ronda's murder

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

48 Hours just replayed this. Ron Reynolds is just plain weird and his son is downright strange. They both give me the creeps. Justice surely wasn't done IMO.

 

[sasha17]

Bump for Ronda. I hope her case can one day be solved.

 

[CherCee]

Nielsen added there was a note written on the mirror that said, "'I love you, call me,' and a phone number in lipstick."
From this article:
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/131488243.html

I wonder who's phone number was written in lipstick on that mirror? Seems a bit odd to write that and then go into a closet and commit suicide, doesn't it?

I believe the phone # was Ronda's grandmother's (Virginia).

 

[CherCee]

Am I the only person who read "In the Still of the Night" and thinks Rhonda really might have committed suicide and Ann Rule let her relationship with Barb Thompson "cloud" her judgment?

An issue that Ann seems to have really "dropped the ball" on is the possibility that Rhonda had been committing credit card fraud. Ann acknowledged that "someone using the name Ronda Reynolds" had been entered into a "credit card fraud diversion program" (which would mean that that person had been arrested for fraud). Ann "suggests" that someone else may have been using her identity then just drops the whole matter as if it had no bearing on the murder vs. suicide issue.

This "issue" seemed critical. Had someone been committing fraud using Ronda's identity (and having been arrested and prosecuted under this identity) this would be a clear motive for murder. If Ronda had actually been involved in fraud, it would put a lot of events that occurred in a completely different light and given Ronda a motive suicide.

How could she have done it when her hands were under the blanket? Impossible. I believe that his ex (mother of his 5 sons) used Ronda's name to get the credit card(s). She was a known drug addict and would have been desperate for money.

 

[CherCee]

I think it's odd that his ex-wife moved in the evening the current wife is found dead and began sleeping with him. From your link:


Ron Reynolds' first wife Catherine Hutulla also testified, saying she believed Ronda Reynolds committed suicide. But she also admitted to having moved into Ronda Reynolds' house that very evening.

When the coroner asked where in the house Hutulla slept, she answered, "In Ron's room," adding she slept in the same bed as Ron Reynolds.

Ronda's mother Barbara found Hutulla coming out of the bedroom in a nightgown when she went to talk to Ron. And Hutulla was his second wife, Ronda was his third.