By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The real life drama that has played out in Lewis County for more than a decade and peaked last autumn with a coroner’s inquest into the controversial 1998 death in Toledo of former trooper Ronda Reynolds will be told on national television next month.
48 Hours Mystery, CBS’s true crime series will feature a one-hour documentary on the case on April 21 at 10 p.m., according to Reynolds’ mother Barb Thompson.
[1]Inquest witness, 2011
Thompson, who lives in Spokane, got word today from producers of the airing date, and she promptly sent out a message sharing the news for those interested in the story.
“My daughter Ronda Reynolds died Dec. 16, 1998 and finally in October 2011 her death certificate was changed for the last time to homicide,” Thompson wrote.
Reynolds, 33, died with a bullet in her head in the home she shared with husband of less than a year, Toledo Elementary School Principal Ron Reynolds. She was found dead on the floor of a small walk-in closet, covered up by a turned-on electric blanket.
Her death was labeled a suicide and an unconvinced Thompson battled the offices of the sheriff and the coroner and then took the matter to court.
Producers from 48 Hours joined local and regional news media in October at the Lewis County courthouse when new Coroner Warren McLeod held his inquest.
The sheriff’s office admitted to some mistakes, including either the handgun being moved at the scene before photos were taken, or those photos getting lost. Jurors heard about evidence being destroyed or returned too soon.
The inquest jury ruled unanimously the manner of death was homicide [2] and named Ron Reynolds and his son Jonathan as responsible. Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer however declined to bring criminal charges. The father and son deny any involvement.
Thompson said television crews spent four days with her in November and three more days in Spokane earlier this month.
“I know they interviewed Ron and his family once, and went back and did it again a couple weeks ago,” Thompson said this evening.
The widespread attention to the case is not something Thompson expected to ever see.
There was a time when she pestered local newspaper editors to investigate her daughter’s death, and was told no, they don’t report on suicides.
In 2001, she and a good friend of her daughter’s, David Bell, took a trip down to The (Centralia) Chronicle to try once again with its new editor at the time, and succeeded.
“Way back then, we were just hoping to wake up Lewis County,” she said. “That was kind of all we were thinking about; helping people realize there was a problem.”
Thompson said she didn’t think the examination of the case would go on for almost 14 years, or turn into a book by true crime author Ann Rule, let alone a television documentary.
“I’ve got the death certificate that say homicide,” she said. “And that’s what I set out to prove.”
Thompson said she only knows about the parts that were filmed with her, and doesn’t know how the 48 Hours episode will end.
She and her 36-year-old son Freeman will likely watch the show together, just the two of them, she said.