[1]Barb Thompson, mother of Ronda Reynolds speaks on the witness stand in Chehalis. / Courtesy photo by Bradd Reynolds
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – When Barb Thompson took the witness stand yesterday during the coroner’s inquest into her grown daughter’s death she told those in the courtroom she was certain it was a homicide.
“There is no doubt in my mind, I am 100 percent convinced without a doubt that my daughter was murdered,” Thompson said.
The Spokane mother answered questions for almost an hour and a half about what she has learned since Dec. 16, 1998 when she was told her daughter, 33-year-old Ronda Reynolds, had committed suicide in her Toledo home.
Ronda Reynolds, a former trooper then working security at the Bon Marche, was found dead on the floor of a small walk-in closet, with a bullet in her head and covered up by a turned-on electric blanket.
[2]Ronda Reynolds
Her new husband, Toledo Elementary School Principal Ron Reynolds, told sheriff’s deputies the marriage was ending and his wife was talking about suicide the day before and through the night. Ron Reynolds said he woke up around 6 a.m. and realized she was no longer in bed with him, according to previous testimony.
Thompson testified she spoke with her daughter on the telephone twice that night and at first her daughter was going to move out that day, but changed her mind and decided she would leave on her own terms. She was not suicidal, she was upbeat, Thompson said.
Ronda Reynolds purchased an airline ticket to fly to Spokane the following afternoon.
“She was going to come home, spend some time with family and make some decisions and plans,” Thompson said.
Some 30 witnesses have been heard in Lewis County Coroner Warren McLeod’s inquest in Chehalis as its first week came to a close.
Thompson described how she went to Toledo and her conversations with the son-in-law she was meeting in person for the first time.
Ron Reynolds told her she couldn’t have any of her daughter’s personal belongings because he planned to sell them to cover debt he blamed on his wife, Thompson testified.
She asked him about a funeral, and he said he said he didn’t know because he didn’t have any money. She asked if she could bring her daughter’s body back to Spokane, and cremate her, she said.
“He said he didn’t care as long as he didn’t have to pay for it,” Thompson said nearly breaking into sobs on the stand.
He told her she left him bankrupt, and never once did he say he missed her, Thompson said.
Thompson testified Ron Reynolds told her how he discovered a life insurance premium his wife hadn’t payed, that he thought it was $300,000 and was going to put it in the mail that afternoon.
Thompson has spent the years since poring through records, working with private investigators and an attorney to find out for sure what happened to her daughter. It always comes back to homicide, she said on Friday.
Neither Ron Reynolds nor his three sons are taking the opportunity to testify during the proceedings, as they invoked their fifth amendment right against self incrimination.
Thompson spoke of one of Ron Reynolds’ teenage sons she believed had a very deep hatred for her daughter, after a previous incident in which she was told he peeked at Ronda Reynolds in the shower, and she jumped out and tackled him.
He went into a rage and threatened to kill her daughter, Thompson said. The sheriff’s office was called and he had to go live with his mother, Thompson said.
When asked yesterday under oath what Thompson believed could be a motive, if indeed her daughter was killed, Thompson spoke of the Reynolds’ boys and their teenage friends said to have been hanging out and partying [3] at the house that night, one of which told a private investigator Ron Reynolds left the house that evening.
Thompson said she believes there were several individuals at the house that night, including an older Reynolds’ boy who is not named in any of the police reports as having been present. She’s been told by three people Micah Reynolds’ truck was there, she testified.
Thompson spoke of then-17-year-old Jonathan Reynolds.
“I’ve been told he talked about ways he’d like to see her killed,” she said.
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