More than an hour after author Ann Rule's presentation on her book "In the Still of the Night" the line to get it signed reached the top of Centralia College's Corbet Theater
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CENTRALIA – Corbet Theater at Centralia College was filled to capacity with folks who wanted to hear true crime writer Ann Rule speak on her new book about the Ronda Reynolds’ case last night and dozens more were turned away.
Rule, the Seattle-based author, was joined on stage by Barb Thompson, the mother of the former trooper who was found with a bullet in her head on the floor of a walk-in closet inside her Toledo home in 1998.
“Something seemed hinky to me,” said Rule, as she shared the curiosities that led her to explore the suspicious death.
While she normally doesn’t write about cases without a criminal trial and a conviction to structure her story around, Rule made an exception, according to Thompson.
A civil case a year ago in Lewis County Superior Court ended with a panel of 12 citizens concluding that the coroner’s determination the 33-year-old committed suicide was wrong, as well as arbitrary and capricious.
Thompson, who lives in Spokane, told of her efforts through the years to get the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office and the Lewis County Coroner’s Office to give her answers about her daughter’s death and why she finally turned to the courts for a review.
While a judge ordered elected Coroner Terry Wilson to change the death certificate, he has appealed that, Thompson said.
What happens with the appeal, however, may be moot, Rule said.
“Because he won’t be in office in January, you’ll have a new coroner,” she said.
Her pronouncement was followed with heavy applause and some cheers from the audience of more than 500 attendees.
The draw was so large and so close geographically to the heart of Rule’s story, an off duty officer kept close to the two women throughout the evening.
Rule, whose writing career began penning stories for detective magazines under the pseudonym Andy Stack, offered her twist on the case.
“I don’t think the main suspect in this case is who everybody thinks it is,” Rule told the crowd.
“I put forward in the book anywhere from nine to 12 possible suspects,” she said.
New information in the book tells of an individual who revealed to former Lewis County detective Jerry Berry earlier this year that he and several friends of Ron Reynolds’ sons were partying at the house that night, and that Ron Reynolds wasn’t there.
Berry turned his information over to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office who interviewed him, according to Rule’s book. The detectives concluded he was too “wishy-washy” to be believable, Rule wrote.
Much of the evening was questions and answers. Audience members had several.
Can the prosecutor do anything to insist the sheriff’s office reopen the case? Can you not go all the way up to the FBI?
Why would someone killing themselves bother to cover their face with a pillow?
What time were the crime scene photos taken? Why are there different accounts of where the gun was found?
Rule told the gathering there is a reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of someone who carried out a plan to murder Ronda Reynolds.
Retired Lewis County Sheriff Bill Logan didn’t have a question, but offered advice to the crowd.
“I’m familiar with these kinds of cases,” said Logan whose two terms as sheriff ended in January 1995.
“The sheriff’s people are not magicians, they don’t have any magic to solve these things,” he said.
Sometimes the only way it happens is if someone talks, he said.
With so many in the room so interested in the case, something good could come out of the renewed attention, according to Logan.
He urged those in the theater, if they know someone who may know something, to encourage them to talk.
“Sometimes it takes awhile,” Logan said. “With your help, maybe we can get this thing figured out.”
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“In the Still of the Night: The strange death of Ronda Reynolds and her mother’s unceasing quest for the truth” went on sale early last month.
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
Ann Rule, left, and Barb Thompson sign copies of Rule's book about Ronda Reynolds death
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
No Brandi, the proceedings or “trial” you’re referring to were held in Lewis County Superior Court, in Chehalis. I was there. However, you might be thinking about the fact that the case was presided over by a Thurston County Superior Court judge.
Slight correction, the Superior Court trial which overturned the coroner’s determination was held in Thurston County, not Lewis.