Attorney Rick Cordes, standing, introduces the Reynolds' family, starting left and moving clockwise, Si, David, Joshua, Jonathan, Linda and Ron.
Updated at 5:09 p.m. and 9:26 p.m., and Friday Nov. 11, 2011 at 11:18 a.m.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
OLYMPIA – The oldest son of Ron Reynolds told a throng of news reporters today the sheriff’s office investigation into his dad’s wife’s death included mistakes that left legitimate questions, but the inquiry turned into a crusade and witch hunt based on hearsay, rumors and lies.
“It’s gone so far as these two men, Jon and Dad, were publicly declared murder suspects, and basically ruined their lives,” Si Reynolds said.
Si Reynolds, who was 24 years old, married and living in Snohomish County when former trooper Ronda Reynolds was found dead in the Toledo home she shared with Ron Reynolds and his three youngest sons, defended his father and then-17-year-old brother.
“Dad lost his job, Jonathan has this reputation now that he can’t live down,” Si Reynolds said. “All based on lies.”
Ronda Reynolds, 33, was preparing to leave her husband of less than a year when she was found with a bullet in her head, covered up by a turned-on electric blanket on the floor of a closet almost 13 years ago.
She took her own life, and left behind a lot of sadness, Si Reynolds said. But the speculation it was anything but suicide has turned their family upside down, he said.
“It just needs to end,” he said.
Ron Reynolds – the Toledo Elementary School principal who has been put on administrative leave – and three of his other sons took turns addressing the news media this morning in a press conference their attorney hopes could make some headway into clearing their names.
Rick Cordes organized the gathering at his Olympia law office. Ron Reynolds present wife Linda Reynolds joined the family but did not speak.
What prompted them to finally go public is last month a coroner’s inquest jury declared the death a homicide and named Ron and Jonathan Reynolds as responsible. The Lewis County prosecutor has declined to file any criminal charges, saying there’s no evidence remaining.
Cordes told news reporters the Reynolds family has had to live with groundless accusations of homicide and wrongdoing.
“They’ve come to the point now where they don’t feel they have an alternative but to come forward to put an end to these irresponsible allegations,” Cordes said.
The three boys, now men ages 23, 27 and 30, stood at a podium and articulated a fondness for their step-mother which wasn’t apparent from any of the information heard during the eight-day inquest.
None of them attended those proceedings, having invoked their fifth amendment right against providing testimony that might incriminate themselves.
“I’m Josh, I was 10, when Ronda died,” Joshua Reynolds said.
He encouraged those present not to believe everything they hear.
“It’s been a tragedy,” he said. “Losing Ronda was really hard.”
David Reynolds, then 14, said it took a long time to understand his step-mother taking her own life. He said he’s even tried to understand her mother, Barb Thompson’s position.
“It was pretty hard to deal with,” he said. “I don’t think people understand, we were close.”
He told of he and his brothers that night watching television and doing homework. There was no party at the house like some have suggested, he said.
“I was there, I would have know if something else happened,” David Reynolds said. “I would have said something.”
Jonathan Reynolds, now 30, didn’t offer any prepared remarks to the news media, but he answered their questions.
His recall of that night was it was uneventful, he said.
He remembered Dave Bell showing up at their house, and also hanging out with his younger brothers, he said.
“We played video games, did our homework, went to bed, that’s about it,” he said. “Then we woke up and our step-mom was dead.”
He was only a kid, he said. The first time he was interviewed was months later, he said.
“Until after that day, you didn’t even know you were supposed to remember what time you went to the bathroom,” he said.
On his relationship with Ronda Reynolds, he said after a blow-up with her, he moved out to his mother’s but then returned and he and Ronda Reynolds made up, he said.
Jonathan Reynolds said he does construction work, although he’s in between jobs. He said he has a family of his own, and a child.
It’s wrecking his life, not knowing if people are staring at him in the grocery store; he’s upgraded his security system at home, he told news reporters.
“I think it’s the fear of the unknown,” he said.
Jonathan Reynolds said he would like people to know they are telling the truth; and tired of being hurt.
“Really, we just want Ronda to be able to rest,” he said.
Ron Reynolds, now 60, began with telling reporters finding his wife dead was the most horrifying thing he’d ever experienced.
“I can remember going into a state of shock and confusion right away,” he said.
He described the reason their marriage was ending; she was running up credit he didn’t know about and wasn’t being honest when he asked about it, he said.
Ron Reynolds spoke of living in a small town where some believe the stories they’ve heard and others know he could never have killed his wife.
“At the time I was asking her to leave, I still loved her and wouldn’t have wanted anything to happen to her,” he said.
When asked, Ron Reynolds walked reporters through the hours before her death.
The day before, he had gone to his cardiologist in Olympia, he said. As he drove toward Toledo, he had a long cell phone conversation with his wife and she was depressed, he said.
He was worried about her, because she had talked about suicide before.
“I was trying to encourage her and tell her things would get better,” he said.
Ron Reynolds said he was going to stop at home to see her, but then she said she was okay, so he picked up a sandwich and went to the elementary school Christmas program, their biggest event of the year.
Afterward, he arrived home and David Bell was there helping her get things together, he said.
He and his wife were together that night and he tried to encourage her that things would get better, he said.
“I don’t know what time I fell asleep, it was sometime kind of late,” he said. “I was exhausted, I had put in a very long day.”
“When I went to sleep, she was beside me,” he said. “At one point, I remember thinking she was still beside me, but I didn’t turn over and look.”
He said he remembered looking at the alarm clock in the early morning hours.
When the alarm clock woke him, she wasn’t in bed, he said. He got up and looked for her in the living room.
“I go in the bathroom, I notice the door to the walk-in closet is mostly shut, all except for a crack,” he said.
He saw the cord for the electric blanket.
“Then I was worried,” he said.
“The door was blocked, so I somehow had to reach around and move her feet and legs so I could get the door open,” he said.
“That’s when I saw what I saw,” he said.
He said he was sick to his stomach when he called 911. The dispatcher sent him back to check for a pulse, which he did, he said.
“Ronda felt cold at that time,” he said.
The dispatcher asked if there were any children in the house, and suggested he send them somewhere else,’ he said.
“This thing has just been so unfair to my family,” Ron Reynolds said. “I’ve been hoping for years justice would happen, but it hasn’t yet.”
Q and A with Ron Reynolds
Did you kill your wife?
“Absolutely not.”
Why didn’t you hear a gunshot?
“There’s been a lot of discussion about that,” he said.
The door to the bathroom was closed, the walk-in closet was actually at the far end some 20 feet away, he said, with two walls in between. And the closet was stuffed with clothes, he said.
“I understand she shot through the pillow,” he said. “Maybe the shot disturbed me, but didn’t wake me up,” he said.
How do you know someone else didn’t shoot her?
“The way that I know, they would have had to go past me to do that,” he said. “I’m sure I would have heard that.”
Someone would have had to walk within a foot of his bed to get to the closet, he said.
What about the bottle of Black Velvet?
There was a bottle of Black Velvet sitting on her night stand, and he assumed she might have had a drink, he said.
The lipstick writing on the mirror?
It was there when he got home from the music program, he said.
“I think she was planning to travel to Spokane and left me a note,” he said. “I thought she was being kind of dramatic, it was lipstick.”
Why not testify?
“I’ve gotten a lot of legal counsel and I was advised by legal counsel not to testify in that situation,” he said. “And I think the way it turned out, we can see why.”
Do you remember how Ronda was laying?
“There are parts of that that are blank in my mind,” he said.
“I don’t think I told anyone at first about moving her legs, I remembered that later,” he said.
He said he thinks the gun probably moved at that point, from her forehead, falling to “just sort of between her hands.”
The time you fell asleep and woke up?
He said he fell asleep later than normal. Normal would be 11 p.m. or 11:30 p.m.
“Some have said she was alive at 5 a.m.” he said. “Well I didn’t say that. I looked at the clock and thought she was there, but I didn’t look.”
Was there one thing that prompted you to speak out now?
“It’s kind of important when I’m looking at losing my profession,” he said, adding it is also for his family.
You reaction when you heard you were murder suspects?
It gave him a sick feeling he can’t describe, he said.
“My reaction was, we’re getting arrested for something we didn’t do,” he said.
Your demeanor others noted after her death?
“For one thing, you don’t know how you’re gonna act until you get in a situation like that,” he said. “When I found Ronda, nothing in my life had prepared me for that shock.”
He said he’s a low-key person who doesn’t show much public emotion.
What were the “issues” you mentioned Ronda had?
He said he didn’t know of her previous criminal charge for taking money out an account, and that she had been doing community service, he said.
She was having a lot of financial problems, and that was why she was doing things with his credit card, he said.
“I think she had it in her mind when her and Mr. Liburdi’s house sold, she would take care of debts, but that wasn’t panning out, because of the market or something,” he said.
“So I think she got despondent,” he said.
What message do you have for Barb Thompson?
None
What do you want for the rest of your life?
“I want to live with my family in peace,” he said.
Was your other son Micah at the house that night?
No, only Joshua, David and Jonathan, he said.
•••
Watch one hour of raw video from the press conference from KIROtv.com, here
Jonathan Reynolds faces a crowd of news reporters
•••
Toledo Elementary School Principal on administrative leave, Ron Reynolds, answers numerous questions about his former wife's death.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Darrell Press, if you want to have your thoughts taken seriously, please learn to spell!! The inquest brought out so many facts about Ron Reynolds that certainly do NOT portray a Christian man. He comes across as a very greedy, money hungry man, and one without any integrity – having an affair with his ex for several months prior to Ronda’s death and sleeping with her only a day or so after Ronda’s death. His son Jonathan looks like the walking dead, which is typical of a meth addict. I am convinced both are guilty – one of murder, the other of covering it up. Hell waits – justice will ultimately come for Ronda, perhaps not in this life but certainly in the next.
Only a killer has a reason to muffle the sound of a gun shot through a pillow.
Was Reynolds still “in shock, mentally confused and grieving” when two days after Ronda was declared dead he went and paid her life insurance premium. That’s not a lie is it Reynolds? He could not be with Ronda because of her financial dishonesty??? The ex wife who slept with him the very night Ronda died was a dishonest, check bouncing meth smoking, life long self admitted junkie. Who he was having an affair with while married to Ronda. Standing up there condemning Ronda for dishonesty??!! Please. They are one pathetic creepy, mentally disturbed family, with Dad chasing a dollar once again. RIP Ronda.
Ive Known the Reynolds family my entire life. I cant say that I really know them very well know, I wish I still did. I wish things were like when we were kids and our parents were best friends and we went on every vacation together. I actually used to think that one of us would marry one of the Reynolds boys. There were Five of them and five of us, so it just seemed logical. For a while I thought that it would be Kayla and Micah because for a while they were close. They even wrote this little story together,I remember it had hourses in it im sure there was an apalosa . Me and Johnatan (and I know its john know but I told you its always going to be Johnathan to me. Im not sure if I ever properly thanked you for the mixed tape you made me your my only friend who ever took the time to do that even if we were like 10 or 11 or something. The real victims in this situation I don’t care what any one else says are and will always be the boys. I cant speak for ron But I don’t think any of the boys should have ever even had to be involved in this. The day I found out what happened to the Reynolds Family (and I don’t mean the day Rhonda died )the boys know what I mean. (I guess your not boys any more but I like referring to you as that so im going to keep doing it) I still to this day have never cried like I did that day. It was almost like you could see disaster about to strike. I would love to talk to any one of you guys to at least try and catch up a little. Ive tried to find Johnathan a few times , Ive gotten a few numbers but I guess they never turned out to be him. So if any of you boys see this please get ahold of me. I would love to hear from you my # is 509-901-9775. And don’t listen to this crap I would never judge any of you. Every time I hear Tuesdays gone I want to talk to you Jonathan so please call if you see this. Love , Hanna
I have lived in Thurston County (just north of Lewis County) for 22 years and I know how entrenched the good ol’ boy system is in these Washington small towns. Ron Reynolds is guilty as sin. He has lied again and again. If he didn’t pull the trigger he knows exactly who did. I pray that he is a Christian. In our darkest hours we all need God the most.
Is this man still a principal of a school?
This is a sad story.
I can not believe how far Ron Reynolds has dropped in life. I knew the family in the 1976. We were friends and Kate was one of my closest christian associates. What a suprise to see the family in such distress. Leaving what you know to be the truth, and believing the lie, how sad. Like a dog returning to its vomit.
I also watched Ronda’s story tonight on 48 HOURS. There is absolutely NO DOUBT in my mind Jonathan killed Ronda, and Ron covered it up. Jonathan still looks like he’s using Meth! Compare his looks to the other boys! They are handsome, filled out, look healthy. Jonathan’s teeth are rotting, and he is gaunt and hollow! I have a son who uses Meth, and you don’t do Meth “once in awhile”! It is the hardest drug in this world to quit, and STAY QUIT! One more thing. Ronda did not kill herself. Who packs up all their belongings to go “Home” where there is comfort, love, and rest, and right before leaving kills themself??? That’s right: NO ONE!
There is no love like a mother’s love. I’m happy for Barb that she was persistent in getting to the TRUTH, and thank you Ann Rule for helping her!
After watching the two Reynolds talk on 48 he’s tonight, you can tell through body language and facial expression they both are and have lied.
The older Reynolds knows more than he is telling and lied when he told the reporter he did not sleep with his ex wife the very night of the murder.
The younger Reynolds has a great deal more to answer for. Were I the investigator assigned by the court, I would pay very close attention to Jonathan Reynolds. Watch his eyes, the little facial ticks he makes and the inability to keep and maintain eye contact when ask about the murder and the history of his drug use. This is my opinion. Both are very lucky she was not my daughter.
If either Reynolds read this. Do yourselves and society a favor go tell the truth, one day the truth will come. I would hate to be standing in your shoes on that day, you will be getting very hot for a long time unless you repent.
This man is a glutton, he will not go unpunished every day and every night, every minute and every second, he will have to deal with us all knowing the truth.
Btw you call him a Christain, you know he was a mormon.. wonder why he converted? Oh because most christians forgive murderers..
Good game ol’chap good game.
Just got done reading the book and the one son loved tormenting/killing animals. Just watching him speak gave me the creeps. I bet he killed Ronda and daddy covered it up!
“Some said she was alive at 5am. I didn’t say that.” In everything I’ve read he sure did…many many times during the initial investigation. But I don’t think Ron killed her. I think Jonathon did and Dad is covering for his son.
What ever happened to “innocent until proven guilty?”
Barbara runs around sporting new clothes and hairstyle basking in all the attention, Anne $ Rule sells another book. Sickening!!
My hat off to Ron Reynolds, an innocent hardworking man trying his best to hold a family together while a bunch of misguided people forget the constitutional rights this great country was built on.
Ron is a hardworking Christian man, a good father and a fine role model in our community. He has not run from horrible accusations, bur rather stuck it out. Ronda was a very troubled woman. She was unstable adultress, imbezzeler, liar and conniver…very much like her mother Barbara who is addicted to fame and limelight when she should be keeping her mouth shut and asking herself how she could have raised such a mess for a child. What a total shame it is that she has to blame everyone else. Ron tried to give Ronda a good life and she messed up that like everything else she touched.
If these creeps keep on talking —and talking—justice comes to sit with them behing bars—amen
He looks like he has lived a life of overindulgence, fatty steaks, no exercise, afternoon and evening martinis. Time is his worst enemy.
He tries to sound like the heart broken husband but less than 24hrs. of his wives death he had his ex-wife in his bed. That was testimony from his ex-wive @ the coroners inquest this is not gossip and she stayed there for weeks. Also from the inquest from Ronda’s Best friend she testified to speaking to Ronda on the phone around 11pm and Ronda was in another bedroom because earlier that day she took out her waterbed that was in the shared bedroom w/Ron and re set it up in another room, and Ronda stated the bed was still cold so that”s why she had an electric blanket.So he is nothing but a lier all these years he has been able to hide behind his 5th Amendment.Hopefully he will loose his job his, retirement his, home everything because at least he is still breathing and Ronda is not 1 day justice will prevail.
IMHO: It’s convenient that Ron Reynolds had forgotten to mention (until now), that he initially moved Ronda’s legs (answering two of the most obvious screw ups between the facts and his story). I think the worst part of all of this, is how Ron and his sons are now acting the part of victims in this tragedy. Balderdash.
What a murder suspect calls “a witch hunt” is usually what innocent people call “a search for the truth” or “an investigation into the facts.” Have the suspects in this case honestly ever helped search for the truth? Did they ever attend even a single minute of either trial? Where have they been the last thirteen years?
Barb Thompson, Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod, and two Lewis County juries were not looking for witches, but were looking at all the evidence in trying to get to the truth of how Ronda Reynolds died. Both juries were provided all the Reynolds’ various statements and all official police reports claiming that Ronda killed herself.
Are the two jury verdicts in this case just “lies” as the suspects claim? Or, are each of the two independent verdicts in this case a fair, honest and unanimous conclusion of what the evidence shows?
Ronda Reynolds, the real victim in this case, is not able to hold a press conference or defend herself from the grave. The two verdicts are her testament as to how she died.
GARBAGE! It was ALL garbage. And that is why they wouldnt testify under oath….My heart breaks for Barb Thompson, hearing Ron speak of that night and his love for Ronda…SICKENING!
No comments? People are dumbstruck with that fake outrage.