Laura Reynolds was joined at the courthouse by her longtime companion when she testified in the inquest into her son's wife's death. / Courtesy photo by Bradd Reynolds
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Although Toledo Elementary School Principal Ron Reynolds has refused to testify in the coroner’s inquest into his wife’s December 1998 death, his elderly mother took the stand yesterday and spoke of her last contact with her daughter-in-law.
“She called me three times that day,” Laura Reynolds said. “She told me she could not go on living without him.”
Laura Reynolds said she met Ronda Reynolds a short time before the couple was married, less than a year earlier.
Her daughter in-law- was crying, she said, saying she couldn’t give up her husband to another woman, she loved him so much.
The following morning, the 33-year-old former trooper was found dead on the floor of a closet, with a bullet in her head and covered up by a turned-on electric blanket.
The couple were separating and she had purchased a ticket to fly home to her family in Spokane later that day.
As the inquiry in a Chehalis courtroom nears the end of its first week, a similar question has been posed to most of the witnesses by Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod.
Did she ever say she was going to hurt herself? What do you think happened?
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office admits some responsibility in what has come to be known as an error-plagued first investigation.
At the urging of Barb Thompson, the dead woman’s mother, the sheriff’s office requested a well-known New York homicide expert to review the case.
Vernon Geberth was highly critical of their work and their conclusion of suicide.
Geberth concluded it was a staged crime scene, with only one individual interviewed who said they believed she killed herself.
“The only person who stated suicide was the husband, whose gun was used and discovered her body,” Geberth wrote in his report.
Later the same year, then-Sheriff John McCroskey sought another review, from a trio of homicide experts in the state Attorney General’s Office. The case file by then included new interviews conducted by then-detective Sgt. Glade Austin, who supervised the sheriff’s detectives.
George Fox testified yesterday he and his partners at the Attorney General’s office concurred it should be classified as a suicide.
Missing evidence did not and would not alter their findings, Fox said.
Among those who knew Ronda Reynolds and testified was Mark Liburdi.
Their eight year marriage ended a year before her death, Liburdi said.
“Yes I was surprised about the suicide, I remember saying to others, ‘no way’,” Liburdi said.
The woman he called “tough as a pistol” never conveyed such sentiment in words or behavior, he said testifying by telephone.
However, the relationship between the two state troopers was less than close in some ways, according to his testimony. They didn’t mingle their finances and he didn’t learn until after their divorce her medication was for bi-polar disorder, he said.
“Here and now, do you have an opinion, suicide or murder,” Coroner McLeod asked.
“You know, I really don’t know,” Liburdi said. “Sometimes I think no and sometimes I think she could have been killed.
I don’t know. I hope you guys find out”
Barb Thompson, mother of Ronda Reynolds. / Courtesy photo by Bradd Reynolds
Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer / Courtesy photo by Bradd Reynolds
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
I was in court when she testified she is not going to say anything shes a meth head it came out in court that when she was testifing that a friend of hers was driving w/her to go pick up the boys they smoked meth the whole way and she told her friend that her oldest son did it, of course she denies that but what does that person gain by saying that also she moved back into the house the same night after Rhonda died theres other things to like what there neighbor saw IT WAS AND IS MURDER
I agree…. doesnt matter… if your 100% innocent.. then you have nothing to fear in a trial like this… and I agree with Cheryl above…. if your child had something to do with this, drugs or not.. why would you protect them? they made a choice… they pay the price.. its America…. Dont think I would want MY own children having a man with that kind of integrity to be my own childrens principle.. Teach fairness, honesty and that every decision bears with it a consequence somewhere in life…
In my opinion as a woman, a woman “tough as a pistol”, with the confidence of having graduated from the State Patrol Academy, with plans set ahead of her, would not commit suicide. She was beautiful and had been married once before, and there are many fish in the sea. Doesn’t make sence that she would have chosen to end her life over the likes of Ron Reynold’s affair with his former wife. Having plans set ahead is not the personal profile of a distraught woman.
Another question. What time did Catherine Huttula arrive at the home? Was it before or after they discovered Ronda? Can’t she answer questions about what the boys state of mind was before they left the house? Guess parents do about anything to protect their children? Even if the weight of those secrets are so hard to bear your own life would never be the same! I call that enabling in the most crippling of ways for everyone. It is time one of the boys manned up and told the truth – they are not children any more. How can each of the boys and the dad “take the fifth”? Did they all pull the trigger or just accessories?
I say “homicide”.