Mildred Ann Reynolds

I love to tell a good murder mystery story but in this week's story, the mystery is whether there was a murder at all.    

  The black smoke rose above the fields signaling to the farmer that there was something amiss. He put his tractor away, got into his pickup and set out to find the source. The red dirt road led past a smattering of houses; most filled with people the farmer knew.  

     As he got closer, he could tell the source of the smoke was a car. As he got closer to the car, he could see through the open driver's side door the unrecognizable outline of a human figure lying across the front seat. 

     He bolted from the scene, terrified by what he had just found, determined to summon help. But it was clear whoever had been inside that car was beyond help. This is how the mystery started almost 70 years ago.     

  Mildred Ann Reynolds, known as Ann to her family and friends, was a sweet girl with no known enemies. Born on Christmas day 1933, she was 22 years old and a college student getting ready to graduate. She was majoring in chemistry with plans of becoming a hospital technician. 

     She and her husband, R.D. Reynolds, who went by Dee, had been married only nine months on that terrible day in March of 1956. He was the principal at the Avard school. They lived in Avard, Oklahoma along with Ann's 20-year-old nephew, Jerry Huckabee, who was staying with the newlyweds while attending Northwestern State College with Ann.     

  And that's exactly how the day started. Ann and Jerry left together for their classes on the NSU campus in Alva, Oklahoma, a town about 20 minutes north of Avard. When Ann was done with classes for the day, the two of them met at about noon for lunch at Clara's Cafe there in Alva. After lunch, they dropped off some dry cleaning for Jerry then picked up a quart of brake fluid which Ann placed in the back seat. 

     Usually, Jerry rode home with Ann but today he had one more class to attend. Since Ann was already done for the day, she left him there to catch a ride back with a friend while she took the car home. The time she left town was somewhere between 1:00 and 1:20.     

  At around 1:40, somewhere between school and home something went wrong, horribly wrong. Somehow Ann would end up burned beyond recognition in the front seat of the family car on an isolated dirt road just a 1/4 of a mile from her house. But was it a horrible accident? Or was it a vicious crime? Or possibly something else?   

  The farmer called the sheriff who in turn called the fire department. Once the fire was put out and the body was removed to the state crime lab, sheriff's detectives set forth the task of examining and documenting the scene. 

     The first question to answer was who was their victim? Authorities used the license plate to determine it was Ann. I did find census records that showed Ann's in-laws, Homer and Cordilia Reynolds, lived practically next door to Loren Goucher, the farmer that found the burning car. 

     He may have been able to recognize the car as Ann's as well. I’m not sure of that but I am sure that from the beginning law enforcement and fire officials felt this was no accident. Let's examine the circumstances and try to piece together what happened together.        

  As true crime fans, we know there is a difference between cause and manner of death. Cause refers to what "caused" the death. Examples of this could be a health condition like heart disease or cancer. Or a wound such as from a knife or gunshot. Or blunt force trauma received in a fall. 

  In this case, according to the medical examiner, the cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning. Meaning, 

     Ann was still breathing when the fire occurred. The car door was standing open, so she was not trapped inside the car so let's hope the toxic fumes had rendered her unconscious and that was the reason she did not flee the burning car. 

     There was one other thing found in the M.E.'s exam. One more layer to add mystery inside of mystery. Ann's skull was fractured. 

  This could have meant she had been struck over the head or it could have been a result of the fire causing the bones to fracture from heat damage. The medical examiner was never able to determine a definite cause of the fracture so we are left to just speculate.  

  So the cause of death was carbon monoxide due to smoke inhalation but what was the manner of death. Our choices are accident, homicide, suicide, natural and undetermined. 

  I think we can all agree it wasn't suicide and inhaling carbon monoxide isn't a natural way to die. So let's consider homicide first. 

  The dirt road held evidence of numerous tire tracks. Plaster casts were made of the impressions. Initially it was believed that some of those tracks indicated Ann had been run off the road by another vehicle, but later detectives would decide that was not the case. 

     All the tracks belonged to her car or were irrelevant tracks left by other travelers on the road. There were no footprints found in the dirt near the scene. Not even Ann’s.  

  According to police statements, the pattern of the tire tracks indicated her car topped the crest of a hill on the road, then the wheel pulled to the left and came to a skidding stop. 

     The car then descended the hill in reverse, drove forward again and struck a tree, backed up again crossing a ditch ascending a small embankment, drove forward again and rammed a fence post then drove backwards again for 250 feet before coming to its final stop.     

  Hang onto your hat because things are about to get weirder. Ann's coat was found outside of the vehicle, lying in the road ten feet from her car. In addition to this, three buttons, one still attached to a torn swatch of fabric, were laying behind the car.    

  But the most ominous find was yet to come. When the field beside the road was searched, authorities found a section of grass that had been flattened down as if there had been some sort of activity, perhaps even a struggle, there. Drops of blood were found in the grass along with her bloody shoe. The fender from her car was not far away.  What the hell?!    

       I mean this was a homicide, right? All roads lead to something nefarious but what? But how? Ann was seen leaving the campus alone. Furthermore, there was nobody known to investigators that may have wanted to harm her. 

     Both her husband and nephew and even her brother and classmates were all questioned and re-questioned and eventually everyone was cleared as suspects. No one had anything to gain from her death or any motivation to see her gone.  

     There were no affairs, no life insurance and no animosity between Ann and her husband, or her nephew or brother for that matter.   

  Could she have stopped to pick up a hitchhiker who turned on her? Even in the more innocent times of the fifties it seems very unlikely a woman alone would have voluntarily stopped to pick up an unknown man on the side of a deserted country road.    

  Or…maybe it wasn't a hitchhiker but more like a carjacker. This might explain the eradicate driving, the swerving all over the road. Maybe someone leaped out in front of the car trying to stop her. This would explain why she came to a sudden stop as she swerved to the left. Maybe he made it inside the car pushing her out of the driver's seat. 

     She may have gotten out of the car and tried to run but the assailant drove backwards down the hill to catch her. He could have then jumped out of the car to catch her, caught her by the coat, so she wiggled free and ran some more. Then he grabbed her by her blouse causing the buttons to be ripped off. 

     She escaped again then ran to the field where he finally caught her as they struggled on the ground explaining how her bloody shoe was found where it was in the flattened grass. Maybe he caused the skull fracture by beating her over the head until she was unconscious. 

     He then picked her up and placed her in the driver's seat where she would later be found slumped over with her head in the passenger's seat.  He then set the car ablaze utilizing the brake fluid she bought in town that day as an accelerant. 

  But why? If he wanted the car then why torch it? If he wanted to assault her then why not just leave her in the field. Why would he burn her body? And how could there be no footprints or signs of a struggle in the dirt? An attack doesn't make sense when there was absolutely no evidence found of another person having been there. 

     So, if there was no crime then could it have been an accident? Had the car malfunctioned causing the fire. Could this fire have spread so fast she was unable to escape the car? Unless it exploded, that seems unlikely.   

  Could it have been an accident due to some sort of health crisis that caused Ann to lose control and wreck the car causing it to burst into flames killing her before she could escape possibly because she was unconscious?

     That theory actually seemed plausible to many of the investigators. In police interviews, Dee reported that his wife had been complaining of roaring sounds in her ears sometimes accompanied by dizziness in the days prior to her death. Her doctor confirmed that she had come to him for help too. 

     Loud roaring sounds, especially when they pulsate, could be the first sign of an aneurysm. An aneurysm can kill you instantly if it bursts, but it can also cause you to pass out before you die. 

     Remember, she was breathing when the fire started. If she merely passed out, this would explain how she inhaled the carbon monoxide found in her blood and why she was unable to flee the burning car.   

     But why would she be driving back and forth, hitting trees and fence posts if she was unconscious? How did her coat, shoe and buttons get outside of the car!

     If this story frustrates you then you're not alone. Investigators of the case spent years investigating and following what few leads they had. Her family chose to believe there was nothing to investigate. This was nothing more than a tragic, unfortunate accident. 

     We most likely will never know what truly happened to Mildred Ann Reynolds that day. Short of a confession or a crystal ball the truth has probably been lost to time.

So what do you think? 

1. Was it a homicide or an accident?  

2. Why was she driving so erratically?   

3. Why did she not jump out of the car when it caught fire? 

4. How did her shoe, coat and buttons from her blouse get outside of the car if this was an accident? 

5. Why were there no other footprints or tire tracks if this was murder? 

Let me know what you think in the comments.