By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Ronda Reynolds’ mother is accompanying true crime writer Ann Rule on a book signing tour as the hardcover edition of Rule’s take on the 1998 death of the former trooper in Toledo is released.
"In the Still of the Night" by Ann Rule
The two women will be in San Antonio, Texas tomorrow and then on Saturday at a book signing in Spokane, Barb Thompson’s hometown.
“In the Still of the Night” opens in the Chehalis courtroom this past November and travels back more than a decade to the days before Christmas in 1998 when Reynolds was found with a bullet in her head on the floor of a walk-in closet inside her home.
I wish I could write a review, but I haven’t read the book yet.
Thompson has read it and says Rule told her daughter’s story very, very well.
“I would rate it as one of the best she has written – not because it is about my daughter but it is a very heartfelt, very compelling story and she told it so eloquently,” Thompson said in a note to me late last month.
She also wrote that Rule told more about her than she would have preferred, but said it was a small price to pay to get the story out there.
Ronda Reynolds
Thompson said she expects Rule will have a book signing at Centralia College “at some point” and perhaps another local bookstore, but no dates had yet been set.
In the meantime, it looks like it can be ordered online now, from the publisher, Simon & Schuster, from Amazon.com and others.
The curious can read parts of it online on both those web sites including the lengthy “foreword” and what looks like the entire first chapter.
I am very much looking forward to reading it as I’ve followed the case since I began working at The Chronicle almost a decade ago. It’s a story I’m very proud of.
Not long after I was hired to cover crime at the newspaper, executive editor Michael Wagar – who was fairly new there at the time – told me, there’s something I want you to look at.
This woman, he said and I’m paraphrasing, said her daughter was killed and it was labeled a suicide and she couldn’t get the newspaper’s previous editor to write about it.
I began going through the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reports – at least one binder Thompson had gotten through a public disclosure request – and saw an incredibly interesting story there to be told.
Apparently the prevailing thinking had been, “we don’t write about suicides.” Well sure, I thought, the fact that an individual has committed suicide in and of itself is not necessarily newsworthy.
But at that time, in mid-2001, the sheriff’s office had reopened the case, asking outsiders to review it, and had gotten the Lewis County coroner to change the death certificate from suicide to undetermined. Of course it was newsworthy, whether or not it was currently being examined by a team of specialists at the state Attorney General’s Office.
But here’s what followed. Then-Sheriff John McCroskey, maybe the most charming and most popular elected official in the county, put some amount of pressure on my editor not to report and write the story. At least, McCroskey asked, just wait and write what happens after the Attorney General’s Office decides what they think about it.
We didn’t wait.
We published the story in early 2002 and continued to cover it over the years as Thompson eventually got the courts to allow an unprecedented judicial review of a corners decision.
My news reporting relationship with McCroskey’s office never did get very comfortable or easy. But an important story got told.
I’m thrilled that Rule, probably best known for her book “The Stranger Beside Me” about serial killer Ted Bundy, chose to write about the case. Even more people now will get some insight into the back story of the way that law enforcement and a coroner, at least in one community, at one time, worked together.
Speaking of which, most of you know that after almost 30 years, elected Lewis County Coroner Terry Wilson will retire from that position.
Even though a judge, after last November’s judicial review ordered Wilson to change the death certificate and remove the “suicide” label, it’s doubtful Wilson will do so before the end of his term. He’s appealed the order.
However, there are two men running in November to be the next Lewis County coroner.
Warren McLeod and Micheal Hurley said publicly last week at a candidates forum in Adna what they plan to do about the Reynolds’ case if they are elected.
Both said they will change the manner of death to undetermined.
•••
Read my story about the five days in court last November after which “Jury finds coroner erred in ruling former troopers death a suicide” here
Barb Thompson put together a web site called “Justice for Ronda” where you can read her story about the case and see some excerpts from case reports and my very first news story on Jan. 10, 2002. She also added updates over the years to a site called “Real Crimes” which has a message board on it with reader comments.
If you are a subscriber to The (Centralia) Chronicle, you can read stories beginning in mid-2002 on the case by searching their archives.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
This entry was posted on Monday, October 11th, 2010 at 12:14 pm and is filed under Columns and commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Commentary: The Ronda Reynolds case is now a book
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
Ronda Reynolds’ mother is accompanying true crime writer Ann Rule on a book signing tour as the hardcover edition of Rule’s take on the 1998 death of the former trooper in Toledo is released.
"In the Still of the Night" by Ann Rule
The two women will be in San Antonio, Texas tomorrow and then on Saturday at a book signing in Spokane, Barb Thompson’s hometown.
“In the Still of the Night” opens in the Chehalis courtroom this past November and travels back more than a decade to the days before Christmas in 1998 when Reynolds was found with a bullet in her head on the floor of a walk-in closet inside her home.
I wish I could write a review, but I haven’t read the book yet.
Thompson has read it and says Rule told her daughter’s story very, very well.
“I would rate it as one of the best she has written – not because it is about my daughter but it is a very heartfelt, very compelling story and she told it so eloquently,” Thompson said in a note to me late last month.
She also wrote that Rule told more about her than she would have preferred, but said it was a small price to pay to get the story out there.
Ronda Reynolds
Thompson said she expects Rule will have a book signing at Centralia College “at some point” and perhaps another local bookstore, but no dates had yet been set.
In the meantime, it looks like it can be ordered online now, from the publisher, Simon & Schuster, from Amazon.com and others.
The curious can read parts of it online on both those web sites including the lengthy “foreword” and what looks like the entire first chapter.
I am very much looking forward to reading it as I’ve followed the case since I began working at The Chronicle almost a decade ago. It’s a story I’m very proud of.
Not long after I was hired to cover crime at the newspaper, executive editor Michael Wagar – who was fairly new there at the time – told me, there’s something I want you to look at.
This woman, he said and I’m paraphrasing, said her daughter was killed and it was labeled a suicide and she couldn’t get the newspaper’s previous editor to write about it.
I began going through the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office reports – at least one binder Thompson had gotten through a public disclosure request – and saw an incredibly interesting story there to be told.
Apparently the prevailing thinking had been, “we don’t write about suicides.” Well sure, I thought, the fact that an individual has committed suicide in and of itself is not necessarily newsworthy.
But at that time, in mid-2001, the sheriff’s office had reopened the case, asking outsiders to review it, and had gotten the Lewis County coroner to change the death certificate from suicide to undetermined. Of course it was newsworthy, whether or not it was currently being examined by a team of specialists at the state Attorney General’s Office.
But here’s what followed. Then-Sheriff John McCroskey, maybe the most charming and most popular elected official in the county, put some amount of pressure on my editor not to report and write the story. At least, McCroskey asked, just wait and write what happens after the Attorney General’s Office decides what they think about it.
We didn’t wait.
We published the story in early 2002 and continued to cover it over the years as Thompson eventually got the courts to allow an unprecedented judicial review of a corners decision.
My news reporting relationship with McCroskey’s office never did get very comfortable or easy. But an important story got told.
I’m thrilled that Rule, probably best known for her book “The Stranger Beside Me” about serial killer Ted Bundy, chose to write about the case. Even more people now will get some insight into the back story of the way that law enforcement and a coroner, at least in one community, at one time, worked together.
Speaking of which, most of you know that after almost 30 years, elected Lewis County Coroner Terry Wilson will retire from that position.
Even though a judge, after last November’s judicial review ordered Wilson to change the death certificate and remove the “suicide” label, it’s doubtful Wilson will do so before the end of his term. He’s appealed the order.
However, there are two men running in November to be the next Lewis County coroner.
Warren McLeod and Micheal Hurley said publicly last week at a candidates forum in Adna what they plan to do about the Reynolds’ case if they are elected.
Both said they will change the manner of death to undetermined.
•••
Read my story about the five days in court last November after which “Jury finds coroner erred in ruling former troopers death a suicide” here
Barb Thompson put together a web site called “Justice for Ronda” where you can read her story about the case and see some excerpts from case reports and my very first news story on Jan. 10, 2002. She also added updates over the years to a site called “Real Crimes” which has a message board on it with reader comments.
If you are a subscriber to The (Centralia) Chronicle, you can read stories beginning in mid-2002 on the case by searching their archives.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
This entry was posted on Monday, October 11th, 2010 at 12:14 pm and is filed under Columns and commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.