By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Much of today was spent by inquest jurors listening to experts who conducted tests related to Ronda Reynolds’ death.
[1]Joe Upton, handwriting analyst
A handwriting examiner who is a commander at the Lacey Police Department concluded it was more likely than not Ronda Reynolds who wrote the message on her bathroom mirror that then-detective Jerry Berry found appeared to be written with lipstick.
“I love you! Please call me 509-206-4688”
Joe Upton said he looked at several pages of samples authored by both Ronda and Ron Reynolds to make his determination.
Laurie Hull didn’t see it when she was at the house helping Ronda that afternoon. But it was there in the morning when deputies arrived [2] after the 911 call in which Ron Reynolds said his wife had committed suicide.
The fourth day of Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod’s inquest in the Dec. 16, 1998 death of the 33-year-old former trooper included testimony from several Washington State Patrol crime lab technicians.
Crime lab technicians described how they found her blood on her finger nails but none when they analyzed water from a drain and a blue wash cloth.
Retired forensic expert Charles H. Vaughn said he found no blood on the sleeves of Ronda Reynolds’ pajamas, but when asked if that was unusual, said that would have depended upon positioning and could possibly have been blocked by the pillow.
A finger print expert checked for prints on the Black Velvet bottle found in the master bedroom and the .32 caliber Smith and Wesson long handgun, plus five live rounds and one spent round.
“No latent impressions were developed for examination,” Jill Arwine told the jurors.
Arwine said it’s not uncommon for people to touch something and leave no print.
Marty Hayes conducted two types of tests for Barb Thompson, mother of Ronda Reynolds, attempting to show some of the findings did not make sense as she was trying to get the sheriff’s office to take another look at the case after it was reviewed by the state Attorney General’s Office in early 2002.
Since the homicide investigators suggested the gun was in her right hand, Hayes conducted recoil tests attempting to replicate where the gun reportedly fell onto her forehead, he told the inquest jury.
With repeated firing of a virtually identical gun, he could not get the firearm to come to rest on the sandbag depicting her head, he said.
“I found their version of what happened was implausible,” Hayes said.
Hayes, who operates Seattle Firearms Academy in Onalaska, also attempted to shed light on how someone 15 feet away, even beyond a closed door might not hear a gun shot.
When he fired six rounds into a sandbag-filled item in the bathroom of his own home, his decibel meter measured between 92 and 101, he said.
To put that in perspective, Hayes measured an alarm clock at 62 decibels, he said.
More later
[3]Firearms expert Marty Hayes demonstrates possible positions of a gun and Ronda Reynolds on the closet floor. / Courtesy photo by Bradd Reynolds
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Read more about the inquest
• “Homicide experts split on Ronda Reynolds’ cause of death” from KOMOnews.com on Thursday October 13, 2011 at 7:15 p.m., here [4]
Read previous stories on the corner’s inquest
• “Coroners inquest: New investigation points to murder” from Thursday October 13, 2011 at 9:11 a.m., here
• “Coroners inquest: Detective reveals staged “suicide” statement from Ronda Reynolds” from Wednesday October 12, 2011 at 8:51 a.m., here
• “Coroners inquest into Ronda Reynolds death: Responders ponder, suicide or homicide” from Tuesday October 11, 2011 at 7:33 a.m., here [2]