Just nine days before Christmas 1998, thirty-three-year-old Ronda Reynolds was getting ready to visit her mother for the holidays. Ronda’s second marriage was falling apart after less than a year and her career as a Washington State Trooper had ended badly, but her friends and family would insist that Ronda had still been optimistic about her future. Barb Thompson, Ronda’s mother, was just happy that Ronda was coming home. But then a call early in the morning changed Barb’s life forever.

Join us at the quiet end for Who Killed Ronda Reynolds? Ronda’s soon-to-be ex, Ron Reynolds, had called 911 that morning to say that Ronda had committed suicide in their bedroom closet. Over the next several years, the coroner would change Ronda’s manner of death from “undetermined” to “suicide,” not once, but twice. But Barb Thompson never believed that her daughter committed suicide. Finally, Ron was arrested for Ronda’s homicide.  But would there be enough evidence to get a conviction?

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Sources

Former Trooper Ronda Reynold’s Death Ruled Homicide, Seattle Times, 10/19/2011

Husband in notorious Lewis County murder case to leave job as school principal, Seattle Times, Cathy McLain, 8/23/2012

Husband, Stepson arrested, freed in ex-trooper’s death, Seattle Times, Adam Pearson, 10/28/2011

In the Still of the Night by Ann Rule

Mystery on Twin Peaks Drive, 48 Hours, E25 S21, 4/21/2012, retrieved 12/4/2023