Ex-trooper committed suicide, AG's Office concludes
Reynolds, 33, was found dead in her home with a gunshot wound to her right temple and a handgun in or near her left hand. Six months later, the Lewis County Sheriff's Office classified the death as a suicide.
Last summer, however, Sheriff John McCroskey reopened the case at the request of Reynolds' mother, Barb Thompson, who lives in Spokane.
The Sheriff's Office completed the second investigation early last November, once again saying the death was a suicide. The Sheriff's Office then asked the attorney general's Homicide Investigation and Tracking System unit to review the county's work.
The Attorney General's Office issued a letter last week saying agency investigators had concluded that Reynolds died of a self-inflicted wound.
McCroskey said Monday he hopes the case is now closed.
Others remain unsatisfied.
"I'm very disappointed in their report," Thompson said. She was meeting yesterday in Seattle with the investigators.
Jerry Berry, the former Lewis County sheriff's detective who led the first investigation, said he disagrees with the attorney general's assessment. Now a private detective, Berry had spent the past four years working to solve the case for Reynolds' mother, but he said he wouldn't do so any longer.
"I promised myself when it went to the AG's Office that, regardless of what they concluded, I would move on, that I can't fight this case anymore," Berry said.